Remnants
by BlueSky509
Summary: One year after Jason and his parents left the Denver QZ, they end up living in Jackson, Wyoming. However, the people and problems Jason thought he had left behind are far from gone. ElliexOC, OCxOC
1. New Face

**A/N: So, I've finally gotten around to making a No Sound, Please remake…It's been a while, so forgive me for any inconsistencies while I switch gears and put myself back into this particular universe again. As I have said before, in order to not be completely lost, you must read Denver's Finest before reading this. Denver's Finest is not an optional prequel anymore. It is the main story, and No Sound, Please is its sequel. **

**That said, I will rewind a bit (back to Fall, precisely) because there are some loose ends I want to tie up with Ian and Riley before skipping ahead to Jason and Ellie in Spring. This chapter essentially starts off exactly where it ended in the final chapter of Denver's Finest. Just so there's no confusion, the names Ian and Dom are used interchangeably by various characters and myself, but they refer to the same person: Ian Rowland. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Six months earlier (Fall)<strong>

Riley groggily wiped the sleep from her eyes as the sunlight Dom loved to complain about stung her retinas. _I should really get curtains for that damn window…maybe I'll do that today, just to make it easier on Dom, _she thought, stifling a yawn. She checked said boy's injuries by carefully peeling back the blanket, frowning at the considerable amount of inflammation around the stitches. She made a mental note to get some antibiotics or penicillin for him as she dressed, pulling on a gray tank top, converse shoes, and jeans. Dom's bloody shirt and Cobra jacket were still crumpled in the corner, and she hung the latter up to clean it later. She knew how much he loved and depended on the thing.

Riley stopped for a moment to sit at the foot of the bed, the ring on her finger glinting in one of the beams of dusty sunlight streaming through the window. She examined how the tiny diamond set in the center of the silver band gleamed and sparkled, allowing a smile to work its way onto her face as she glanced between it and her sleeping boyfriend. She picked her head up as her father emerged from his bedroom across the hall, halting in her doorway when he noticed Dom.

"What's he doing back so early? I thought the scavenging trip wasn't supposed to be back for another couple of days?" Dale yawned, furrowing his bushy, black eyebrows.

"Things went south, I guess," Riley shrugged, "he's the only one who made it back alive. He was half dead when he collapsed into my bed last night." She covertly curled the fingers of her left hand under her thigh so her father wouldn't see the ring. A sense of anxiety invaded her mind as she thought of his possible reactions if he saw it. None of them were positive.

Dale nodded to himself, "I'll see if we have anything for the inflammation. I want to know more about who did it when he wakes up." With that he ambled down the stairs, maneuvering across the entrance hall and the various pieces of broken furniture that cluttered the place. Riley followed suit, briefly wondering why they haven't cleared the place up and used the excess, splintered furniture as firewood yet. They'd been living there for half a year already.

Riley strode past her father and the living room, embarking on her daily morning routine of feeding the guard dogs, most of which were German Shepherds, and collecting eggs from the neighbour's chicken coop. The area around the chicken coop was fenced to keep the dogs out, but it didn't stop them from trying to dig under it every now and again. The morning air was crisp and chilly, and the leaves of whatever trees that weren't evergreens towering above the wall were already changing colour. When she returned with two eggs, she placed them on the black granite countertop for her father to clean.

"What's the plan for today?" Riley queried, strolling over to the first floor bathroom to comb her hair while her father prepared breakfast.

Dale rubbed a hand down his half-awake face, scratching his scruffy, black beard. "While I wait for Ian to wake up, I want a patrol squad sent out there. I want to make sure none of those bastards that slaughtered our men followed us here," he said gruffly, and Riley nodded as she took a seat at the countertop. The bar stool underneath her creaked as she settled herself, fidgeting out of boredom while her father fried the eggs.

She realized her mistake too late. Dale turned around before she could hide her left hand, opening his mouth to say something else. He clamped it shut with an audible clack of his teeth, his expression darkening. "Riley, where did you get that ring?" he asked, holding on to the hope that she just found it somewhere, and she didn't know what it meant.

"Ian gave it to me last night," the blonde girl answered innocently, "It's a promise ring."

"I can't believe this…" Dale growled, turning off the stove and setting the pan aside. The eggs were only half-fried.

Riley cocked her head as her father retraced his steps up the marble staircase. "What do you mean?" she asked after him. Dale stopped with his foot on the upstairs landing, turning to his daughter a few steps below him.

"That boy's got some explaining to do," Dale said, and Riley got the feeling that explaining wouldn't be the only thing that was going to go on between them. "No boy is promising himself to a daughter of mine without my permission," Dale muttered under his breath, making the floorboards squeak as he and Riley entered her room. Riley was glad her father had the sense to not outright strangle Ian in his state, at least not yet.

Riley tugged on her father's arm, getting his attention. "Can't this wait until Dom recovers a bit? He can't explain himself like this!" she whispered harshly, and Dale shook his head. He wasn't going to let his daughter walk out of the house with that ring on again if he could help it.

Dale shook Ian awake, albeit with difficulty. He seemed to have retreated into unconsciousness so deeply that Dale briefly wondered if the boy had gone into a coma. After a few tries, though, Ian groaned and cracked an eye open. He looked less than pleased to be awake. Being awake was painful.

"You mind explaining this to me?" the man demanded, showing him the ring on Riley's hand.

Dom took a minute to formulate his scrambled thoughts into a coherent one. "I want…to marry Riley someday. I thought…that ring would let people know…I'm keeping that promise," he said weakly, his voice raspy because of his laboured breathing. Riley merely stared at him in shock while her father restrained himself from clamping his hand around the boy's scarred neck. It was one thing to dream of the possibility, but quite another to say it out loud.

"You ain't promising shit until you come to me first. I am Riley's father, and I decide what's best for her," Dale growled dangerously, "If I see you pull something like this again, it's the whipping post for you, injuries or no injuries." He glared at Ian with a steely glint in his eyes, long and unrelenting, until the brown-haired boy eventually nodded silently, his own eyes defiant despite the pain he was in.

"Dad, that's not fair! You can't punish him for wanting to marry someone!" Riley protested.

Dale sighed, fully expecting the backlash from his daughter. "No, I can't. But I can punish him for willfully disobeying orders. He's far from ideal for you, and you're too young to be making these kinds of decisions, Riley. I will _not_ let you throw your life away when you're barely even seventeen! You're not even an adult, for Christ's sake!" Dale's voice steadily rose, and by the end he was shouting at her. Riley refused to cower, though the urge almost overwhelmed her.

Riley balled her fists at her side, feeding off her father's anger. "Dad, we love each other. Dom's risked his life protecting me countless times, and you know I've done the same for him. How can you say he's not good enough for me?" she was on the brink of yelling at him now, "We've stood by each other long before we even left Denver, but you're such a shitty father, you don't even know what's happened to me since you kicked me out at fourteen!" Riley's voice broke as tears stung behind her eyes. She stormed furiously out of the room, taking the stairs two at a time, and then slamming the front door behind her.

"Riley!" Dale sharply called after the girl, but she was already long gone. But now that she was out of the house, he could send a more forceful message to Ian. He put a vice grip on the boy's neck, letting him cough and choke for a few seconds before uttering threateningly, "Don't put any more stupid ideas into her head, you hear me, boy?"

Dom weakly nodded, gasping for breath and moaning feebly in pain as Dale released him, following in his daughter's wake.

* * *

><p>Jason led Pixie, his black overo filly, past Ellie as he gave her another dirty look. <em>Serves her right for scaring Pixie…<em>he thought, trying to keep the horse from nervously bobbing her head as he led her into the barn. Didn't this girl know not to sneak up behind horses?

Ellie still didn't seem to get the message that he didn't want her around, because she leaned against a stall door and watched as he untacked his horse. "Maria was right, you don't talk much…" the redhead commented, like she expected everyone to just strike up a conversation as soon as she met them.

Jason spotted his father, Shane, shaking his head at him as he continued to fork hay down from the loft. Jason narrowed his brown eyes at him, the exchange going unnoticed by Ellie as she turned around to scratch Beauty's muzzle behind her. The Clydesdale mare nibbled at the girl's finger, making her laugh a little.

Jason was perfectly capable of talking since his throat had healed, but he preferred silence and signing. It was easier to converse with his deaf mother, Julia, that way, and to ward off nosy girls coming to the barn. However, it didn't seem to be working with Ellie since she hadn't left yet.

"So, how long have you lived here?" Ellie queried from behind him.

Jason sighed through his nose, running one hand through his unruly brunet hair. He removed Pixie's saddle, completely ignoring Ellie's question as he placed the saddle on its designated post that jutted out from the wall in the tack room. He placed the faded turquoise saddle pad over it so it could dry. He half-expected Ellie to follow him, and she did, blocking the doorway of the tack room.

"Okay, what the hell is up with you and not talking? Do you give people the silent treatment all the time?" Ellie asked in an irritated voice, still blocking the doorway. Jason found it amusing that she barely reached his shoulder. He could easily push her out of the way, but he was having too much fun annoying her. He dusted off his jeans, picking a stray piece of straw out of his faded pine-green tank top. Oddly enough, it was the same colour as Ellie's eyes.

Jason merely nodded, crossing his lanky arms and eyeing her condescendingly. She pressed her lips together, and he noticed her eyes flick to his tattoo on his left upper arm and back to his eyes again. He could see the question in her eyes before she even opened her mouth to ask it.

"It's none of your concern," Jason snapped, his voice raspy from disuse. He decided annoying her wasn't amusing anymore and roughly pushed past her. She was surprised by his sudden resort to physical force, which just meant that she didn't offer much resistance as he strode back out into the aisle. Jason pulled a small piece of carrot out from his jeans pocket, completely ignoring Ellie again.

"So you can talk! I knew it!" Ellie exclaimed triumphantly, dusting the sleeves of her plaid hoodie off. Jason merely rolled his eyes at her enthusiasm, patting Pixie's neck as she happily munched on the carrot. He clipped a lead rope to her halter, turning her around and leading her out to one of the paddocks. Once he closed the gate behind her, he gave Ellie another bored look, who was watching him from the barn doorway.

Again, she wasn't perturbed by his standoffish behaviour. Seeing as she wasn't going to leave, he decided he might as well put her to work. He shoved a broom into her hands, striding off to get one of his own. Putting two and two together, Ellie began sweeping the dirt and straw to the sides of the aisle, copying Jason.

Just when he was getting used to the silence, Ellie had to go and ruin it by talking again. "You're from Denver, then? You've lived in the Quarantine Zone there?" she asked, her voice a bit more serious, gentler. At least she understood it was a sensitive subject.

Jason silently nodded, his expression darkening.

"I grew up in the Boston QZ…Must've been tough, huh?" Ellie laughed mirthlessly a little, but it quickly faded. _If that's not the understatement of the year, I don't know what is…way to go, Ellie, _she mentally sighed.

_You have no idea…_Jason snorted derisively in his head. Instead, he gave her a harsh look that indicated he wanted to change the subject. Immediately.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Ellie decided to ignore Jason's icy look in favor of asking, "What's a Cobra? I mean, I know it's obviously a type of snake, but was it some kind of military group, or something?"

Jason clamped his jaw shut, his grip tightening on the handle of his broom so much that his knuckles went white. Ellie finally got the message that she was about to break the thin ice she was already walking on, and fell quiet. "Too much?" she ventured after a moment of tense silence.

Jason nodded, relaxing his grip on his broom. Ellie didn't talk for the rest of the time they swept the barn together, though he did hear her whistle a bit, probably just to ease the palpable tension in the air. Jason once again became absorbed into his own thoughts, the motions of the broom and the sound of straw scraping against concrete almost becoming meditative. He faintly registered the flapping and whistle of a chickadee on the lamp post jutting out above the barn door, and Ellie fruitlessly trying to copy its birdsong.

When Ellie actually managed to copy the tiny bird's two-tone whistle, Jason jerked his head up, the reaction almost automatic as he whistled the same tone, but a third lower. He shut his mouth as Ellie cocked her head at him, giving him a perplexed look. "Did you just copy me?" she questioned him, her tone a mix of surprise and sarcasm.

Jason cast is eyes down, inwardly cursing himself. "Stop fooling around, get back to work," he ordered, and he hated how unconvincing he sounded. _Is one fucking whistle all it takes to trip me up these days? Jesus…_he scolded himself, and then he noticed Ellie hadn't taken his eyes off him.

"Whatever…" Ellie shrugged, sweeping the last of the dirt to the side of the aisle. She leaned the broom against the wall, taking the opportunity to study Jason when he had his back turned. He looked a little thin, and his general lankiness didn't help. Though, he had the muscle tone of someone who regularly worked with heavy gear, or maybe just did a lot of physical labour.

Jason didn't notice when Ellie left, since he had disappeared into the tack room to organize the bridles and saddles everyone always seemed to leave a mess of. He was glad that nobody was bombarding him with questions anymore, but at the same time he fought off the curiosity that was starting to seep in at the back of his mind.

The mere mention of the order he used to belong to made unwanted memories resurface from the place they were supposed to be repressed forever. Images of soldiers burning alive with arrows lodged into their flesh flashed across his mind, along with men in black jackets, the silver blades of their swords dripping with fresh blood…The horrible screams of both men and horses…

Jason gripped the cantle of the saddle he was cleaning so hard that his nails left semicircle marks in the leather. He shook his head vigorously, and the terrible memories gradually receded back into the dark depths of his mind. Jason took a few moments to control his rapid breathing, and the heavy footfalls he recognized as his father's helped jerk him back to the present. Jason whipped his head around, catching the sympathetic look on his father's face. The bald patch poking through his silver hair gleamed in the sunlight. Jason hated that look, and he didn't want his father's pity.

"You alright, son?" Shane cautiously asked, though he was used to Jason's "episodes" by now. They were less frequent now, but there were times when Shane caught him staring off into space, his brown eyes full of suffering and pain.

Jason curtly nodded, going back to cleaning the saddle. He felt his father's gaze on him for another minute, and then the man's footsteps retreated. The silence Jason loved so much settled on the barn again, broken only by the swishing of horse tails or the occasional snort.


	2. Scars

**Spring (forgot to put this last chapter)**

That evening, Ellie, Joel, Tommy, and Maria sat together at Tommy and Maria's dinner table, eating a sparse dinner of boiled corn and venison. Tommy and Maria had a two-floor cottage, with two bedrooms on the second floor and another two, along with a bathroom, on the first. They only had one couch that they designated the living room, and the other half of it was the kitchen. The kitchen consisted of a refrigerator and a stove, complete with an oven and cramped quarters since everything had been situated in one corner.

Maria was chatting quietly with her husband, but Ellie only caught bits and pieces about their conversation on cattle. Joel was his usual silent self, lost in thought with his eyebrows furrowed as he forked corn into his mouth. Ellie's thoughts kept wandering back to Jason and the strange writing on his arm. No soldiers in Boston had writing on their skin like his, and Ellie couldn't fathom how they were even made.

The question slipped out before her mind could catch up and stop her. "What's a Cobra?" Ellie queried, seeing Tommy and Maria tense up in perfect harmony out of the corner of her eye. Joel merely raised an eyebrow at the pair; they were acting like Ellie had just asked where babies came from.

"You know what it is, it's a type of snake," Joel answered gruffly between bites.

"I know, but that's not what I'm talking about. This kid in the barn, he had weird black writing on his arm, saying he was part of the Denver military and the Cobras. He wouldn't tell me, so I thought-" she clamped her mouth shut as Tommy gave her a glare.

"We don't talk about the Cobras," Tommy growled, and his behaviour set Joel on edge. He gave his little brother a harsh warning look.

Maria put a hand on Tommy's shoulder, gently massaging it to calm him. "It's a fair question, honey, she doesn't know. It's behind us now, you can tell her," she said soothingly, and by her tone Ellie knew that Maria was privy to the information as well. Joel nodded, indicating he was interested.

Tommy sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Eventually he gave in. "Fine, fine," he relented, turning to Ellie, "Sorry. The Cobras…were an assassin group that split from the Denver military to team up with the Fireflies some years back. They were brutal, merciless bastards without a shred of compassion, only doing what would benefit themselves at the expense of others."

"They sound like Hunters," Ellie commented.

Tommy snorted. "They were worse."

"Why did the Fireflies team up with them?" Joel added himself into the conversation.

"At the time, the Cobras were a useful ally. They controlled the territory around St. Mary's Hospital around Salt Lake City, so we decided to play nice and give them weapons in exchange for setting up camp. But things went south, and we drove the Cobras out," Tommy answered hesitantly, "I don't want to know how the fallout affected the Fireflies in Denver…I'm sure it wasn't pretty."

Ellie nodded, fidgeting. Jason was a cold-blooded assassin? He didn't seem the type…but then again, looks were deceiving. "So what about Jason?"

Maria and Tommy exchanged looks, and Maria gave him a tiny nod. "Jason is my nephew, my sister Julia and Shane came with him about a year ago. It's a miracle they survived, I've heard from Shane that the Cobras and the military slaughtered each other until there was nobody left," she explained, her tone soft with a hint of sorrow. Ellie had seen battles and shootings of both Fireflies and soldiers, but she had never seen a full-on war between two sides where they cut each other down to the last man. She shivered at the thought.

"No wonder he's so depressed…he's seen worse than we have," Ellie knitted her brow, and then grew quiet. Maria and Tommy nodded their agreement. The rest of the dinner was silent, and Joel offered to do the dishes. Ellie pushed herself back from the table, scraping the chair against the hardwood floor as she did. Dusk had turned to twilight now, and a chill had settled in place of the sun's warmth.

Ellie mumbled something about going to talk to Jason, heading down to the barn. She wrapped her arms around herself for warmth against the chill, and stopped in front of the huge wooden doors that had been closed. Light still spilled through from underneath, and Ellie spied a person's figure leaning against the closed tack room door at the other end as she peeked through the sliver of space between the large doors.

It was Jason, Ellie realized, and he was holding something long and sharp. He held it up against the dim light as if to inspect it, and Ellie recognized it as a sword. She had seen them in pictures in her old history textbook back in Boston, but she had never seen one in person. It was beautiful, the silver of the blade and the gold of the guard glinting in the light.

Jason sheathed the blade in some sort of leather holster at his hip, like in what Joel might put a revolver. He dragged out of an unused stall a stack of two barrels bolted one on top of the other, so they were as tall as a person. The barrels had long gashes gouged into the weary wood, and some parts were completely missing. There were so many chips in them, Ellie couldn't count. She figured out why when Jason started hacking and slashing at the barrels, and Ellie took a startled step back at his aggressiveness.

Only, after a few rounds of watching him she realized it wasn't just random slashing. She noticed a technique to it, an intricate one she had no doubt took a very long time to learn. She had no doubt that Jason was as brutal and merciless to his enemies as Tommy said Cobras were. It was mesmerizing watching him, every move calculated and executed with no disruption of momentum. It was like the sword was an extension of his arms.

Ellie only left when Jason put the barrels away, wiping the sweat dripping down his face and neck. She left with a new respect and caution towards him, reminding herself that she would end up like the barrels if she got on his bad side. Now she only had more questions.

* * *

><p>Ellie returned to the barn the next day, and Jason wordlessly acknowledged her presence by handing her a broom. A light rain had picked up sometime during the morning, and she could hear it ping and patter against the metal roof above her head inside the barn. A couple of pigeons cooed from the rafters, sheltering from the rain. Jason mimicked Ellie as he took his half of the aisle, his eyes distant like he was remembering a long-forgotten memory.<p>

"Jason?" Ellie asked, but he didn't turn his head. She tried a couple more times, louder, and finally on the third try he snapped his head up to meet her eyes, one eyebrow raised. "Umm...why do you have a sword?" she queried, vaguely remembering that men fought with swords before the invention of the car. That was over a century ago.

Jason's expression clouded over like the sky warning of a storm. "You wouldn't be the first to spy on me," he growled, his voice a bit raspy. Ellie wondered if it was because of the scar on his throat, or if he was just developing a cold. He did look a little pale.

Ellie narrowed her eyes. "Spy on you? Why would I spy on you? I just wanna know why you even have one, jeez…" she quipped irritably.

Jason stopped sweeping, giving his signature sigh through his nose. "It's a long story," he grumbled evasively.

"I'm not going anywhere," Ellie shot back.

Another sigh. Jason ran a hand through his hair, setting the broom aside. "I…inherited it. Sort of. There are these stupid rules about swords where I come from. A…friend taught me how to use it," he explained. By the way he hesitated on the word 'friend', Ellie suspected this person wasn't really a friend at all.

"It looked pretty lethal. Was this 'friend' a Cobra, too?" Ellie asked cautiously.

Jason nodded. He was silent for so long, Ellie realized he wasn't going to say anything else. So she went back to sweeping, the same meditative quiet settling over them like yesterday.

"I've killed people with that sword," Jason said out of the blue after a while, like the conversation hadn't ended. Ellie couldn't say she was surprised. She shrugged, putting her broom away as Jason brought out a rusted wheelbarrow. It used to be silver, but the rust left brown-red splotches all over it. He taught her briefly how to muck a stall, and then left her to her own devices.

More comfortable silence enveloped them as they mucked each stall, chucking soiled straw and manure into the wheelbarrow. Ellie caught the dark-haired boy looking at her from under his lashes every now and again, but each time she almost caught him, he quickly cast his eyes down so she couldn't be sure if he was looking at her at all.

"What was this Cobra friend of yours like?" Ellie asked. She was curious, she had never heard of people who used swords instead of guns. She supposed when push came to shove, they were more reliable than melee weapons.

Jason glanced up at her from across the aisle, and she swore she caught a smirk twitching his lips upward. But again, it was gone so fast she wasn't sure he had smirked or just twitched his lips in irritation. With his stony expression, gauging his emotions was as difficult as gauging Joel's.

He was quiet for so long, Ellie was sure he wasn't going to answer. But then he finally said, "He was a girlfriend-stealing asshole with a knack for killing people. We left each other on good terms, though."

Ellie blurted the question out before she could stop herself, "You had a girlfriend?"

She saw Jason visibly tense, the muscles in his back growing taut as he put a death grip on the handles of the full wheelbarrow. She couldn't see his face, but she was sure there was pain in his expression. She waited for him to either lunge at or scold her like Tommy did, but he did neither. Jason gradually relaxed, his white knuckles turning to a normal shade of pale pink again.

"Right, sorry," Ellie apologized quietly, returning to her work.

Jason let an audible breath out, not quite a sigh, but it was enough to tell her he was trying to control his temper. He pushed the wheelbarrow out into the rain, dumped it, and came back shaking the water from his hair like a wet dog. Ellie felt like she was walking on eggshells until she finished cleaning the stalls, biting her tongue to stop asking anymore questions while trying to do a good enough job to keep Jason from getting anymore annoyed with her.

Arching her aching back, Ellie set aside the pitchfork and leaned against the stall door, adjusting her ponytail. Cleaning up after horses was exhausting. She swore Jason rolled his eyes at her as he passed, disappearing into the tack room. He came out again, holding a rectangular tin box in one hand. "You…wanna go up to the hayloft? Did you bring lunch with you?" he queried, chewing his lip as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his calf with his opposite foot, averting his eyes.

_Is he nervous? _Ellie thought, furrowing her brow a little. It was the most emotion he had shown all morning. "No, I don't have anything. I can go to Tommy's to get something, though," she said.

Jason pursed his lips, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "It's okay, I-I can share. I usually split with my dad, anyway," he said quietly, almost like he hoped she wouldn't hear.

"Sure. I'm starving," Ellie agreed, and Jason poorly hid a look of surprise as he blinked at her for a moment. Then he ducked his head, turning on his heel as he led her up the narrow staircase. He let his long legs dangle off the edge of the hayloft, opening the tin box and handing half of a ham sandwich to Ellie. She wasn't expecting much, it was just a piece of ham and a little bit of butter between two pieces of bread. Still, she appreciated the meager lunch and didn't complain as she bit into it. As usual, Jason was completely silent as he ate his half of the sandwich.

When they were both done, Jason finally broke the accustomed silence between them, "You can go if you want. I just have to clean the tack and then I'm done until I have to feed the horses later."

"I have nothing else to do, I can help," Ellie offered. Jason expertly hid a smile, hopping easily off the hayloft's edge and landing on one knee on the barn floor. Ellie stifled a gasp, thinking he had broken something. "Are you fucking crazy? Are you trying to break your leg?" she called down to him, her eyes widening as he stood up and brushed himself off like he had just stepped off a chair. She estimated he had just fallen at least ten feet, if not more, without a scratch.

Jason shrugged, smirking up at her. Ellie quickly descended the stairs, following Jason into the tack room. "Do you do that to scare the shit out of people? How did you not break anything?" she asked in disbelief.

"Practice," Jason chuckled.

_So he does like scaring the shit out of people…_Ellie thought as she rolled her eyes. Jason taught her how to clean the saddles and bridles, and soon they became absorbed in their work again. Then, ever so softly, Ellie heard Jason singing to himself.

_Do you hear the people sing?_

_Singing a song of angry men?_

_It is the music of a people_

_Who will not be slaves again…_

"What are you singing?" Ellie asked, and Jason's head shot up like she caught him doing something embarrassing.

"What? I wasn't singing," the dark-haired boy denied.

Ellie snorted, "You totally were. Where'd you hear that?"

Jason became sombre again, turning around to start taking apart another bridle. "Can't remember…" he said stiffly, indicating that was the end of the conversation. By his tone, Ellie knew very well that he did remember. It just brought him too much pain to talk about it, judging by the faraway look in his eyes.

Ellie pressed her lips together, letting a breath out as she returned to working on the saddle in front of her.

The clopping of horse hooves and fire streaking through the air came to Jason's mind again as he leaned against the wall, his back to Ellie. He remembered a grenade blast, and screams of agony. He pushed the memory out of his mind before the two people he had been with flashed behind his eyes. _If it wasn't for that son of a bitch…I wouldn't be here…_he reminded himself.

"Jason? Hey, you okay?" Ellie queried in concern, watching him struggle to control his breathing as his eyes glazed over again. He was lost in another memory. She cautiously placed a hand on his shoulder, hastily retracting it as he whipped around, ready to punch her. "Hey, easy!" Ellie raised her hands in surrender, stepping out of his range. Jason blinked a few times, shaking his head.

"Sorry…I get these episodes sometimes…I zone out and I forget where I am for a couple minutes," Jason mumbled in apology, "You can go, I'll finish up."

Ellie nodded, "Okay. Uh…thanks for lunch and teaching me this stuff." Jason bowed his head in reply, taking a few deep breaths to calm his racing heart. Ellie meandered off down the barn aisle, mulling over what just happened as she picked up a jog to get out of the rain faster.

_We're not really that different, _Ellie thought to herself as she closed Tommy's front door behind her. She wrung the water from her hair, saying a quick greeting to Maria in the kitchen before padding up the stairs to her room. She wasn't ready to sleep apart from Joel yet, so they shared one room while leaving the other empty. The room was simple, with a dresser, a nightstand, a lamp, and a double bed they shared. Joel was reading a book, and he picked his head up as Ellie walked in.

"Hey, Ellie. How was the barn?" Joel greeted, putting the book down.

"Fine. Jason taught me some stuff like cleaning saddles and stalls. I'm really tired," Ellie yawned despite herself, sitting at the foot of the bed. She laid on her back beside Joel, gazing out at the rivulets of rain racing each other down the window.

Joel made a noise of agreement, picking up his book again. "What's Jason like? Is he cold and heartless like Tommy said those Cobras are?"

"No…he's a little cold, but I don't know. He just seems lonely…and really sad. He must have lost all of his friends in that battle Maria was talking about," Ellie mumbled, propping her head up with her arm.

"Maybe. Best not to bring it up when he doesn't want to think about it," Joel advised sagely.

Ellie nodded. She fell quiet for a few moments before she said, "That fucking sucks, not being sure if your friends are alive or dead."

"He's still hoping, I guess. Chances are they're dead, but he never had proof. He can never know for sure," Joel said, "Poor kid…it happens to everyone, though. You just gotta move on."

Ellie shrugged, closing her eyes as she let the comfortable silence envelope her, and the soft lullaby of the rain pattering against the window lulled her into a light sleep.


	3. Plans

"We've been scouting this place for months now, why haven't we made a move yet? The snow's gone, we can attack them easily now," Ian growled at Dale, who leaned against the black granite island opposite him. The mid-May sunlight streaming through the ivy-lined kitchen window was warm and benevolent this year; it had melted all the snow already.

Dale rubbed a hand down his grizzled face, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. It was too early in the morning to talk tactics and organize a full-scale attack. "I know, but we don't even know if it's the right place. Besides, they have that wall…even if we could confirm anything, we couldn't get through. We don't have the firepower, we'd be slaughtered before we can even get through the gate," he pointed out.

After the attack at the small ranch the previous fall, Dale had vowed revenge. Whoever those people were, they had killed his friends, and some of the children of his settlement were left fatherless. They needed to be put down. He had sent Ian, along with a few others, to do scouting trips time and time again, but by winter food was scarce and they needed to focus all efforts on surviving the bitter, cold months.

The good news was that they had found a promising town, the bad news was that they couldn't confirm if it contained their suspects. Spying efforts told them it was called Jackson, and that these people also controlled the dam a mile or so away by the Snake. It was the only large, organized town with horses they could find in the area, and it seemed the most plausible. So come spring, they had resumed their spying, but so far it had been fruitless. If they were to get anything, they needed inside information. Due to the heavily guarded gate, the well-armed inhabitants, and their impeccable sentries and snipers, efforts to take a hostage had proved impossible without raising some kind of alarm. Dale didn't want to risk a guinea pig if he wasn't absolutely sure he had the right place and the right people.

"So we're just going to sit and forget about them? What about the kids they left orphaned, and the wives these bastards left widowed? Don't they deserve some kind of consolation, to know that the men who killed their husbands had been cut down for it?" Ian hissed, trying to keep his voice down. Riley was still sleeping upstairs, and neither wanted to wake her with their arguing.

Dale gave Ian a glare, silently telling him he was getting on his nerves. Ian was intelligent and strategic, but he could be brash and stubborn when frustrated and angry enough. "If we don't want to lose any more fathers, we need to be smart about this. I know you want to go in there guns blazing, but we can't. You know that," he said.

"What are we going to do, then?" the brunet boy crossed his arms.

The black-haired man pinched the bridge of his crooked nose, deep in thought. The answer was obvious: get a hostage, or plant a mole on the inside. Both of those were very difficult things to pull off. Finally he sighed, "We need to get a hostage. Once we do that, we can find out if these are our guys. Now, we know we can't take one from anywhere near the gate without stirring things up. But I've been thinking…"

Ian laced his spidery fingers together, one brown eyebrow raised, indicating for Dale to continue.

"These guys can't survive on hunting alone, their population is too large. They have to have livestock somewhere, like cattle or sheep. If they graze their livestock outside their town, which I bet my right arm they have to, we can find our hostage there," Dale suggested, looking at the younger man for his opinion.

Ian pursed his lips, furrowing his brow. "Makes sense, but…now we have to find these livestock, and that's harder than trying to find a needle in a thousand haystacks. The only reason I can think of as to why we haven't found them before is like what we do here: leave only the ones to be used for breeding next year alive, and butcher the rest for winter," he observed. His sensible side was starting to kick in again.

Dale nodded. "I want to send you out again, and I want Jerry to come with you. He's-"

"-But you know I hate Jerry, and you know what he did! I will not-" Ian interrupted, eyes flashing with loathing.

"Let me finish, boy," Dale snapped, and Ian shut his mouth. He knew better than to get this man angry, "I know you and Jerry hate each other, but he is the second-best sniper we have. He's fast, his work is quiet like yours, and you can both smell danger from a mile away. You may not like each other, but in terms of skills, he's the closest we have to you."

Ian set his jaw, clenching and unclenching his fists. "Rats are always the first to run…" he muttered under his breath, and Dale shot another glare at him. Clearing his throat, Ian quipped through gritted teeth, "Fine. I'll do it. When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow, at dawn. You should be able to get a good day's travel in, and for God's sake, don't do anything stupid. One idiot with a gun is enough," Dale rolled his eyes at Ian's cocky smirk, and he slid off the bar stool to sneak upstairs.

Riley had installed makeshift curtains months ago in her bedroom, which were just thin blankets poked through a steel bar and bolted to the wall. Dale had even patched up the small hole in the hardwood floor by the window. Riley was curled up under the blankets, sleeping soundly in the morning quiet. The sunlight trying to peek through the curtains made them glow orange, casting dimmed, gentle light throughout the bedroom, careful not to wake the sleeping girl.

Ian hovered in the doorway, studying his girlfriend. Her shoulder-length, golden hair fanned out across the pillow, the soft light caressed her features, making her all the more beautiful. Dale had forbid them from exchanging so much as promise rings in the fall, and he hadn't tried since. He wasn't stupid enough to disobey him. As much as he hated to admit it, the man was right. They were too young to be making that type of commitment to each other, especially Riley.

_Even if she was old enough, Dale made it clear he doesn't want me as a son-in-law. If he never approves, I don't have a chance in hell, _Ian sighed to himself, quietly padding into the room. At least Dale had let them sleep in the same bed again, but even then he was reluctant. Ian had presumed it was because Dale thought he was too old for Riley. But then, after a while and a lot of thinking, he realized something else.

_I am too much like my father._

And Ian knew how much Dale hated his father. Even when they were in the Cobras together, they hated each other. Kelly Rowland was always the better one, in skill and otherwise. Still, they worked with each other and some of their comrades, including Ian's mother, to keep the Order running, putting aside their differences for a time until Dale had enough, and left the Order to his mother, and then his father. Even though Kelly Rowland was dead, to have the only surviving member of the Rowland family in his household was almost more than Dale could bear. If his daughter wanted so much as to have one as her fiancé, Dale would probably kill him before he even got the chance to put the ring on her finger.

As much as he wanted to deny it, Dom knew that Dale saw his father in him. It didn't help he was a spitting image of Kelly when he was younger. If he wasn't careful, he would start acting like him, too. Then there would be a real problem.

Dom quietly slipped into Riley's bed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as he pecked a good morning kiss on her cheek. Riley stirred, smiling a little as her mind resurfaced from the depths of unconsciousness. "What'd you get out of bed so early for, Dom?" Riley asked groggily, blinking the sleep from her eyes.

"Your dad wanted to talk strategy," Ian said, implying with his deadpan voice that it was boring as hell.

Riley set her lips in a grim line, knowing what that meant. "You're going to leave on another scouting trip, aren't you?" she sighed a little, the question more like a statement.

"Yeah…we've got a good plan this time, a different one. It has a better chance of working, and it should keep us alive," Dom reassured her, and then his tone grew sarcastic, "_Jerry _is coming with me, of all people. Your dad wants a quiet hostage kidnapping, but I'll probably tear his throat out before we even get there."

Riley giggled, her thin frame vibrating a bit. It was short lived, though. "I hate it when you leave…You're gone for an entire week, and I always worry about what might happen to you, or if you'll come back, or-"

The other worries died on her tongue as Ian kissed her into silence, getting her to relax in his arms. She was always tense when she started stressing about things. "I'm going to come back safe and sound, I have all the other times, and I will this time. Everything's going to be fine," Ian reassured her as he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers so she had no choice but to look at him.

Riley turned away, muttering, "You don't know that…"

Ian let an audible breath out, blowing strands of Riley's blonde hair upwards in the process. She was right, there was never a guarantee that he would come back safely. It wouldn't be the first time where he had come back with a couple of gunshot wounds, or half-dead like last fall. But he was the best they had, so he was always put first in the line of fire by Dale. Riley had tried time and time again to stop her father from sending Ian out on the potentially suicidal scouting trips, but he wouldn't have it, and Ian wasn't afraid of going.

"Jerry and I leave tomorrow at dawn," Ian informed her, and he heard a tiny, sad sigh in reply.

* * *

><p>A couple of weeks passed since Ellie and Joel arrived in Jackson, and it was peaceful for the most part. There were the odd bandit attacks at the dam, but people tended to stay away from the town's formidable wall. Ellie had even seen Jason fight on horseback once, and he looked more dangerous than anyone with a gun in his Cobra jacket and sword. She couldn't imagine how terrifying it would be to have a whole charge coming at you.<p>

Jason was reluctant to tell Ellie anything more about the Cobras, despite her prodding. He did show her _Elena_, though, his cavalry sword. He even taught her a couple of moves when she snuck into the barn after dark to watch him train. Jason always seem more uneasy then, and it wasn't hard to figure out why, so Ellie made sure she didn't stay too long.

"What would you do if you ever saw that Cobra friend of yours again?" Ellie queried out of the blue one sunny May morning, helping Jason bathe the horses. She was holding Beauty, the Clydesdale mare, while Jason sprayed water over her with a hose. Shane watched them from the barn doorway.

A small smirk quirked Jason's lips up, but Ellie couldn't tell if it was genuine.

"I'd probably punch him in the face, why?" Jason answered after a moment of deliberation. He picked up a sweat scraper from a nearby bucket, removing the excess water from Beauty's coat.

"That's a nice way to greet someone…" Ellie snorted.

Jason shrugged, "He deserves it. He may have saved my ass a couple of times, but that doesn't mean I like him."

Ellie mimicked him, about to reply, but then Shane got their attention. Ellie and Jason picked their heads up to see a blonde girl about Ellie's age standing beside him. "Is that Hailey?" Ellie queried. She was wearing a gray tank top and cargo shorts, her long hair tied up in a ponytail like hers. Ellie had briefly met her before, but she was too high-energy for her liking. There seemed to be nothing she wasn't super excited about.

"Yeah…"Jason muttered, and he didn't seem happy to see her. Ellie wondered if something had gone on between them, but she kept her mouth shut as she led Beauty along behind her, putting her into a stall as Jason went to chat with Hailey.

Ellie closed the stall door behind her, leaning against it. Hailey seemed wary of Jason, but she wasn't sure if it was because he was that intimidating or because Shane was nearby. Nevertheless, she seemed like she wanted to get out of the barn as soon as possible.

"So…can my friends and I come play wine pong tonight in the hayloft? You can join if you want…" Hailey asked, clasping her hands behind her back and rocking on her toes. It was like a child asking a parent for permission to go hang out with friends.

Jason let out a tired breath, giving her a cold, hard stare that Ellie didn't think she deserved. Or maybe she did, and Ellie didn't know why yet. "As long as you don't make my horses chew broken glass, we shouldn't have a problem," he snapped. Ellie had a feeling it wasn't the first time Hailey had gotten on Jason's bad side.

"We promise not to break any bottles this time, honest! Last time Derek just got a little rowdy, that's all…" Hailey promised, making an ex over her heart. Jason rolled his eyes, dismissing her with a wave of his hand. Hailey squealed happily, and then turned to jog out of the barn. "Ellie, you can come too!" she called over her shoulder, before disappearing around the corner.

"Did they really break bottles in the hayloft?" Ellie queried in disbelief.

Jason nodded, his expression darkening. "Yeah, I spent days picking up all the glass…lucky they picked a spot with no hay, otherwise I would've been really mad," he spat, and then a thoughtful look replaced his annoyed one, "You want to come? They show up after dark, it's not so bad."

"I've never played wine pong…I don't even like wine," Ellie shrugged, remembering the wine, or liquor, or whatever it was Riley had offered her in Winston's tent back in Boston. The stuff tasted awful. It left a dull ache in her heart, and she pushed the memory away before more of them could flood back in.

Jason smirked, "I hate wine, but it feels good to take the edge off sometimes. Dad says I'm too uptight."

"You are! Introduce Ellie to your friends, she'll have a good time!" Shane chuckled, bringing the buckets and sponges back inside.

"They're not my friends, Dad…" Jason drawled, taking the buckets from his father and placing them in the tack room.

Ellie smiled a little herself, grinding the concrete with the ball of her foot. "Sure, I'll come. I have nothing else to do, anyway," she agreed, and even though Jason expertly hid it, she could tell he was glad she had accepted.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well, things are starting to heat up now :) Let me know what your predictions are of what will happen with Ian, and what will happen at the party! And yes…wine pong, I know. I just didn't think beer could survive for twenty years, and that at least Jackson didn't have the means of making it anymore :p Wine can survive a lot better than beer in storage, though. Maybe I'll throw some whiskey and vodka in there too…Maybe ;)**


	4. True Colours

Ellie didn't know what to expect for these little gatherings in the barn's hayloft, but as far as she was concerned, it was pretty low key. Five others arrived in ones and twos, and including herself and Jason, that made seven. Hailey came with her friend Olivia, a mouse-haired girl in shorts that left too much exposed for the chill in the summer air as twilight settled in. She held her prize in a paper bag; a bottle of red wine, apparently swiped from the cafeteria down the street. Ellie figured it was easy to hide in the dark under Olivia's ratty gray hoodie.

Next came two brothers, both with almost-black hair, one of which being the infamous Derek which obviously made Jason on edge. He didn't even shake his hand when Derek offered it. His brother Julian eyed him with a glare as he passed to go up the narrow stairs to the hayloft, and Jason easily returned it with just as much harshness. He held a stack of plastic cups and although harmless, he managed to make them look a little more threatening.

The last girl to arrive was Nicole, a dark-skinned girl with curly black hair that reminded Ellie of Marlene's. She also had the same chocolate-brown eyes. Once Ellie and Jason, the last to ascend the stairs, had settled in the circle they had formed in the hayloft, Hailey explained the rules of Spin the Bottle and wine pong. Ellie had a feeling it was mostly for her, but she wouldn't be surprised if this was the first time Jason had actually paid attention to these peoples' games. After all the introductions, Spin the Bottle started.

Apparently, an added rule was to take a swig of the wine each time you were paired up with someone during Spin the Bottle. Ellie was apprehensive about kissing people she didn't know, and she never had experience kissing a boy. She prayed each time the bottle was spun that it wouldn't land on her. But, after a few rounds of watching couples kiss each other, and Jason looking bored out of his mind, the bottle landed on her. Ellie shrugged, keeping her rising anxiety quelled as she spun the bottle. It landed on Nicole.

"Drat, let's spin again," Nicole giggled, reaching for the bottle to take another swing. While she did, Ellie fidgeted a bit.

"What's the matter, Ellie?" Hailey gently elbowed the redhead, smiling a little too widely for her liking.

Ellie shrugged, "I was just wondering, why do we need to spin again if a girl is paired up with another girl?"

Hailey clapped Ellie on the shoulder, laughing despite Ellie's concerned expression. The rest of the group joined in, sniggering along with Hailey. Only Jason remained silent, his face unreadable like always. "Ellie, you're so funny! You're not serious, are you?" Hailey drawled, erupting in another small fit of giggles.

"I don't see anything wrong with a girl kissing a girl…" Ellie mumbled, feeling heat creeping up her cheeks. She expected Hailey to laugh more, but she suddenly went silent, a disgusted expression replacing her grin. Looking out at the rest of the group, they wore similar expressions of concern.

Olivia broke the tense silence that had settled on the group, "Ellie, that's gross, why would anyone do that? That's like Jason over here kissing Derek."

Derek crinkled his nose up at the suggestion, but Jason, as usual, appeared unaffected. Ellie threw a helpless glance at Jason, but he remained still, a statue carved from stone. His penetrating stare didn't help either.

"Have _you_ kissed a girl?" Nicole asked Ellie, her tone mirroring her slightly horrified countenance. Everyone seemed to lean in a few inches, eagerly awaiting Ellie's answer.

Ellie rubbed her upper arm with her opposite hand, biting her lip as she cast her eyes downward. Why was everyone having such a problem with that? It felt perfectly natural with Riley… "Yeah, once…" Ellie mumbled after a moment of quiet. When she looked up again, everyone looked at her like she had just grown a second head.

"How was it?" Julian breathed, and his twin brother ribbed him, silencing him.

Hailey erupted into laughter again, but she poorly hid the strain in it. "Ellie, stop kidding around! Isn't she so funny, guys?" The rest, with the exception of Jason, all joined in with a little too much effort after a few moments. The game resumed with a new tension in the air, and Ellie caught furtive glances from Hailey's friends every now and again. Ellie wished she could melt into the hay behind her, disappear from view, or just make everyone somehow forget what she just said.

To Ellie's despair, the bottle landed on her during Julian's turn. Ellie had no idea how Jason hadn't been picked to kiss a girl yet, the lucky devil. A wry smirk curled Julian's lips upward, and from across the circle Ellie barely noticed Jason's fists clench as his shoulders tensed. Ellie resisted the almost overwhelming urge to scurry backward, away from the advancing Julian.

"Let's see if I can't change your mind about kissing girls, eh?" Julian chuckled seductively, and the urge to escape finally overrode Ellie's mind. Men advancing on her never sat well with her, especially in cramped spaces. Ellie's eyes darted around as she shrunk back, looking for an escape route, swearing the teenagers wearing expectant expressions around her could hear her pounding heart and quickening breath.

Julian's jeans scrapped against the wood, the hay crunching underneath his hands and knees as he came ever closer. When Ellie swore she could feel his breath on her neck, and the heat radiating off his body, she let out a tiny whimper. Not only did she not want to kiss him, she couldn't kiss him without infecting him. She squeezed her eyes shut and awaited the worst.

Then, the heat was gone, and Ellie opened her eyes one by one as she heard a skirmish ensue, everyone giving cries of surprise as they broke ranks and congregated by the wall, which turned into pleas to stop. Jason had Julian by the collar of his faded black polo shirt, slugging him across the face as Olivia and Hailey struggled to hold Derek back. Jason forced Julian to his feet, pushing him back until the latter was tipping perilously over the edge of the hayloft, prevented only by Jason's fist bunching his shirt.

Ellie watched them in shock, and although the height of the fall wasn't fatal, landing improperly would surely break a few bones.

"If I see you take advantage of a girl like that again, I'm letting you fall. Do I have your word?" Jason growled menacingly, his eyes cold, harsh, and devoid of emotion. He wasn't bluffing.

Julian clutched Jason's wrist, like it was his only lifeline. Literally, it was. "Ye-yeah, totally! I won't, promise! Ju-just don't k-kill me, okay?" Julian stammered, his pale face contorted in pure terror as he glanced down at the distant concrete floor of the barn. Sweat drilled down his face as Jason glared mercilessly at him for a few more moments, like he was toying with the decision to let him fall anyways. Finally he hurled Julian onto the wooden floor of the hayloft again, spitting derisively at him. His eyes still harboured that dead glare, like even if he let Julian fall and snap his neck, it wouldn't affect him.

"What the fuck, man?" Derek breathed, helping his twin brother to his feet. Julian's nose was bleeding. The others wore similar ghastly looks, their eyes full of fear.

"Fucking freak!" Nicole hurled the insult at Jason, but when his icy stare snapped to her, she immediately clamped her mouth shut. She and the others filed down the staircase, hastily leaving until only Jason and Ellie were left in the hayloft. Silence settled upon the barn again, the laughter, cheering, and playful teasing gone.

Jason hooked his thumbs into the front pockets of his dirty jeans, scuffing bits of hay away with the heel of his boot. If anything it was like how he acted when Ellie watched him train after dark-subtly awkward, but still maintaining his composure. He chanced a glance at Ellie, who hadn't left from her place by a small tower of hay bales.

"Are you…alright?" Jason raised an eyebrow at the redhead, cocking his head at her. The words sounded out of place coming from his mouth; like concern for other people was foreign to him.

Ellie threw him a concerned look in reply, "You almost let a guy fall and snap his neck, and you're asking _me _if I'm alright?"

Mild surprise replaced Jason's seemingly even milder worry, and he coughed once as a bit of hay dust entered his throat. "Guess you're right…we've all got our quirks," he said as he cleared his throat.

"That's not a 'quirk', that's kind of scary," Ellie pointed out, finally getting to her feet and brushing the hay from her pants.

One corner of Jason's lips twitched, and then he was back to his usual emotionless expression. "Do I scare you?" he queried after a moment of silence. By his open tone, Ellie knew it was an honest expression.

Ellie shrugged, making her way towards the stairs. "Not a lot really scares me anymore, I've seen freakier," she said.

Jason nodded to himself, following her lead. He remained quiet and contemplative until they reached the barn door. During the short walk, Ellie couldn't help but wonder if he had always been like this. Isolated, extremely reserved, distrusting of everyone, prone to letting his violent side take over at a moment's notice…having an unspeakable sorrow hidden deep within himself, but which was painfully obvious whenever he zoned out.

"I'm…kind of glad you got Julian away from me," Ellie admitted, standing under the barn's lamp hanging from the post. It lit Jason's features from overhead, casting the slight hollows under his cheekbones, brow, and jaw in sharp contrast. It was impossible to tell what the look in his eyes was, but Ellie could guess.

Jason nodded again, casting his gaze downward so his bangs covered most of his face. If Ellie wasn't mistaken, she could see bits of orange at the tips. "I hate it when guys try to force themselves on girls. You were clearly freaking out, I could tell," he murmured, "It's okay to say no, they won't judge you too harshly for it."

Ellie narrowed her eyes in disbelief, "So now this is suddenly my fault? You're the one who threw the first punch."

"Maybe if you stood up for yourself, I wouldn't have had to. That's not like you, just cowering like that," Jason observed in deadpan, looking at Ellie from under his lashes.

Ellie grit her teeth, trying to restrain herself from punching him across the face._ He picks now, of all times, to be an asshole? What a dick! _She thought to herself. But then she took a step back, and realized he was right. If she was ever cornered, she knew she would fight tooth and nail to get out, and she had numerous times. Why was tonight so different? Was it because she wanted to make a good impression on Hailey's friends? _Hailey's friends can go to hell…_Ellie growled mentally.

"I just…I don't know, okay? Maybe it was Hailey's friends, or their jokes about girls kissing girls, I don't know!" Ellie said in exasperation, flinging her hands up.

Jason sighed through his nose, switching his gaze to the night sky. Beyond the floodlights of the town, a few stars here and there were visible, twinkling on black velvet. The ugly, jagged scar on his neck was thrown into sudden relief. "You were serious about that, weren't you? About kissing a girl?" he asked after Ellie had finished stammering excuses.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ellie shot back, now on the defensive.

Chewing his lip, Jason brought his attention on Ellie once more. He studied her for a moment, and then finally replied after too long of a lull, "Nothing." With that he turned on his heel with military precision, and casually waved her off with a, "G'night, Ellie."

Ellie muttered a few insults after him under her breath, wondering what he could have possibly been thinking in those few moments of silence. She shivered, hugging herself for warmth as the crickets in the tall grass by the paddock fence resumed their concert, stalking off back to Tommy's with no intention of enjoying the free nightly entertainment.

* * *

><p>"Can we break for lunch? We've been walking around for hours and we haven't found shit…" Jerry complained in his Southern drawl, readjusting his position in the saddle for the umpteenth time that morning. He was riding Chester, the chestnut Quarter horse gelding, while Ian rode along a few meters ahead on Jasmine, their Appaloosa mare. Maybe if they ever took over Jackson, they could add a few more horses to their lot.<p>

"Not until we find these guys' livestock. I'm following their trail," Ian snapped back at him, aggravated by his constant whining. He hated working with Jerry, he never stopped annoying him. Whether it was endlessly complaining about how tired or hungry he was, or just being incompetent at the simplest survivalist things, he always found a way to get on Ian's nerves.

Jerry made a derisive snort, "How the fuck do you know we're on their trail?"

Ian rolled his eyes, pointing at the ground. "Maybe if you looked at the ground instead of at my horse's ass, you'd figure that out," he quipped irritably.

Jerry made a face at the back of Ian's head, casting his gaze downward to study the forest floor. He ran a hand through his brown, sweat-slicked hair. Sure enough, they were on a slightly worn trail, marked here and there by a bovine hoof print in the dried mud. There were horse tracks too, though not made by their own. They did look a little old, maybe at least a few days.

For once in his life, Jerry quieted down as he plodded along behind Ian on his horse, traversing the endless forest floor while the conifers around him towered above his head, acting like a formidable wall. Birdsong filtered with the sunlight through the trees, adding a tiny reprieve to the repetitive, boring scenery.

"Say, what's Riley like in bed?" Jerry asked after a few minutes of quiet, filled in only by birdsong and the whispers of the wind through the branches of the trees around them.

_Of all the fucking stupid questions…_Ian growled to himself. "Like I would ever tell you that, dumbass," he scoffed in reply.

"Haven't you fucked her yet? You've known her for like, what? Three years?" Jerry chuckled in disbelief. Ian remained silent, and Jerry broke out into cackles. "Wait, you really _haven't_? What have you been doing all this time with her, man?"

"Shut the fuck up, Jerry," Ian spat back at him. Of course, Jerry didn't listen to him, and just kept taunting him. "No seriously, shut the fuck up. I see 'em," Ian lowered his voice, his gaze fixed on something beyond the treeline. Surprised, Jerry actually followed orders for once. They both dismounted, tying the horses up in a nearby stand of spruce trees. If Jerry was competent at anything, it was two things: sneaking around and fleeing like a coward at the first sign of danger.

The pair quietly half-crawled, half-crouched their way to the edge of the treeline, where they looked unseen at the small herd of cattle grazing in the forest clearing, oblivious to any danger. They were mostly black, like the Angus cattle Ian remembered sharing the barn with the horses back in Denver. They also spotted a couple of men on horseback, calmly patrolling the edge of the clearing, yet alert for any sign of trouble. They cradled rifles in their arms, and pistols in holsters, no doubt loaded.

"There can't be just two of them…C'mon, let's see if we can find their camp," Ian suggested, and Jerry nodded, following his lead as he moved in a slow circle around the clearing. Jerry winced every time a twig snapped under their feet, which was almost every step. Eventually, painfully slowly, they came upon a tiny, extinguished campfire with three bedrolls spread out a few feet away from the charred, black fire pit.

Ian cocked his head at the third bedroll. "There're three of them…so where's the third one?" he thought out loud, speaking under his breath. He saw Jerry lift one shoulder beside him. Being a veteran of spying, sneaking, and combat, Ian wasn't afraid to engage people if he had to. In fact, he found it exhilarating. It was like a deadly game to him, one of strategy and skill.

"How badly do you think Dale wants a war with these guys?" Jerry queried.

"Dunno. I saw these fuckers first hand, I want them dead too. We need to be sure they're the right people, though. Don't want to go waging a war when we don't have to," Ian shrugged.

Jerry was quiet for a moment, contemplative. Then he said, "But they have to be these guys. They're the only ones with horses for miles around. They have to have that firepower you described, they're the only ones who could get it," he pressed.

Ian pursed his lips, flicking his bangs out of the eyes. "It's likely, but we can't be a hundred percent sure until we get some info from them. Hence the hostage, idiot," he quipped back.

"There can't be anyone else, Ian. How'd you like to be the first casualty?" Jerry wickedly smiled from behind him. Ian half-turned to give him a quizzical look, wondering what had gotten into him.

The realization dawned in Ian's eyes, but before he could get a hand on him, Jerry had already inserted a knife into his abdomen. Fortunately, it was a short dagger, and Ian's Cobra jacket prevented a lot of the damage due to the thick Kevlar lining.

"I should have done you in a long time ago, just like I did your brother. The Rowland family is nothing but a scourge, traitors responsible for the suffering of everyone in the Denver QZ," Jerry hissed, retracting his knife.

_So this is what he's playing at…he wants to finish me off. Bet he's wanted to for a long time, the little fucker. _Ian thought, going into fight mode.

He slugged Jerry across the face, making him release the knife. Jerry fell flat on his back from the impact, and Ian wasted no time pinning him to the ground while he proceeded to furiously punch him. The old anger and sadness at his brother's death fueled Ian's strength, and he wanted nothing more than to watch Jerry suffer for it. He hadn't felt this type of unbridled anger for a very long time, and it felt good to let it consume him, to throw logic and caution to the wind. It sang in his veins, snarling and snapping for more.

He wanted blood.

He wanted death.

However, he quickly came back to reality as a sharp pain erupted from his side, causing him to double over. Jerry easily kicked him off, somehow still conscious despite his obvious head trauma. He was bleeding from his nose, which was broken, but surprisingly Ian hadn't dislocated his jaw yet. Jerry removed a longer hunting knife from Ian's right side, half covered in crimson blood.

Ian clutched his side, lips curled back in a snarl. He quickly got to his feet, staggered a few steps, but managed to stay standing. "You bastard…" he growled, the pain making him unaware for a few seconds that he had left himself wide open. Jerry took the opportunity without hesitation, kicking Ian in the gut a few times. The Kevlar absorbed a lot of the impact, making them less effective than they could have been. Still, they sent Ian reeling back a few steps.

Ian drew his sword, _Bahamut_, the tarnished golden hilt and silver blade glinting in the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees. "I'll kill you," he spat, rushing a practically defenseless Jerry. There was no way he could use a knife to defend against a sword. However, that wasn't what Jerry had in mind. He sidestepped Ian at the last second, before he could bring the blade down on his head. A gunshot cracked across the forest, no doubt catching the attention of the people guarding the cattle, if the ruckus of the skirmish hadn't already.

Jerry holstered his smoking semi-automatic Five-seven pistol, watching Ian fall to one knee. Only by digging his sword into the ground could he keep from falling on his stomach. Pain ripped through Ian's abdomen, and his hand came away red where the bullet had easily shredded through the Kevlar lining at point blank range. Hearing shouts from far-off behind him, Jerry kicked Ian's sword out, caught him by his neck, and dragged him to a dead log the enemy probably used as a saddle rack. Weakened and injured, Ian provided little resistance as Jerry shoved _Bahamut_ through his left shoulder, watching his face contort in agony as he let out a few pathetic cries of pain.

"I'm doing Dale a favor. I'm getting rid of you and I'm starting the war he so desperately wants. Thanks for volunteering as martyr, bud," Jerry chuckled, patting Ian's cheek before he disappeared into the undergrowth. A couple of minutes later, three horses crashed through the brush from the clearing, and three men dismounted, pointing their rifles at Ian. He blacked out just as he saw them lower their guns, slinging their packs off their shoulders.

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><p><strong>AN: Excited now? I know the last few chapters have been slow to get things going, but I hope this one piques your interest, guys! What do you think about the repercussions these events will have on Jackson, and Dale's town? Are you surprised by Jerry? Let me know what you thought, and what your predictions are! **


	5. Tension

**A/N: Thanks to all who have kept up so far, readers and reviewers, you guys are awesome! Anyways, a huge thanks to Astern for being my beta reader, if you want to check out an awesome TLoU story, check out Dirt by her, it's one of the top ones on my list!**

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><p>Joel and Ellie sat quietly across from each other at the kitchen table, each finishing a bowl of oatmeal in the mid-morning sunlight beaming through the window above the sink. It cast the room in a healthy, cheerful light, leaving its trademark squashed rectangle on the hardwood floor. Ellie didn't mind the comfortable silence, but she sensed a bit of tension this morning. Every time she glanced up from her bowl, she noticed Joel gazing back at her, his expression impossible to read as usual. Tommy and Maria were long gone, the former helping build another cottage, and the latter doing a shift at the infirmary.<p>

"You've been spending a lot of time at the barn. Everything alright?" Joel rumbled between spoonfuls of oatmeal. He raised a skeptical eyebrow at Ellie.

Ellie hesitated before putting another spoonful into her mouth, lowering the silver utensil as she instead used it to slowly stir her oatmeal. "Yeah, why?" she replied, following the spoon with her downcast gaze.

"Can't blame me for wonderin'," Joel casually scratched his beard, "So tell me about this Jason kid."

Ellie shrugged noncommittally, pausing for a few seconds. She still didn't meet Joel's gaze. "He's a bit of an asshole, but he's not so bad," she said after she let out a slow breath. Ellie had a feeling she knew where this was going, and she didn't like the sinking feeling she was getting in her stomach.

"Is that who you're goin' out to see after dark?" Joel rumbled, and Ellie snapped her head up, meeting his eyes. The expertly-hidden guilty look on her face and her silence told him all he needed to know. Figuring she wasn't going to talk, Joel decided just to leave it all on the table. "I hope you're not doin' anything…inappropriate with him. I heard some things about a party in the barn last night, was that why you came home so late?" Joel asked, fixing Ellie with a stare that told her there was no beating around the bush with this one. Concerned as he was, he trusted Ellie not to get herself into trouble. He knew she had a good head on her shoulders.

"Yeah, I was at that party…but nothing happened. We had wine, but I didn't have any. And I don't like Jason that way, Joel. He's just a friend," Ellie quipped, clenching her jaw. Why was she getting so defensive, and anxious? She could feel it lapping at her insides, leaving an acrid feeling behind in her gut. Maybe it was just Joel's penetrating stare that was putting her off. How did word even reach him, anyway? He never stuck his nose into other people's business when he didn't have to.

Joel worked his jaw, rubbing it pensively with one hand. "Was it true a fight broke out?" he queried gruffly, continuing the interrogation.

Ellie massaged her upper left arm with her opposite hand, chewing her lip as she deliberated whether or not to tell the truth. In any case, he would probably find out sooner or later, and things would be worse if heard it from someone else, and then cracked down on her. "Jason got mad at this one guy, and he broke his nose, but he might have been a bit drunk, I don't know," Ellie finally replied, watching Joel switch to pinching the bridge of his nose as he sighed. It was the sigh that either came with a warning or a lecture that would end up with both of them shouting at each other.

"Does Jason 'get mad' at people a lot?" Joel asked, grinding his teeth. He could feel the tension inching up his back, spreading to his shoulders.

Ellie narrowed her eyes at him. She hated how Joel would just slightly lift an eyebrow sometimes, and anyone else wouldn't notice it, but to her she knew he was getting impatient. It was like he saved it just for her, and he always knew she noticed. "He doesn't get violent a lot, if that's what you're thinking about. Jason's nice to me and he's never hurt me, so stop acting like he's some kind of criminal," Ellie snapped her reassurance, pushing her chair back so fast, it almost tipped over, "I have to go, I'm already late." Dumping her bowl and spoon in the sink, Ellie hurried out, letting the screen door slam shut behind her.

The sharp clap of the door made Joel's shoulders slump, and the emptiness of the house settled in as he let out a frustrated sigh.

When Ellie got to the barn, she found Jason doing his usual morning sweep down the aisle. He didn't seem to notice her entrance, not that it was anything unusual. She would be lucky to get a "Good morning, Ellie" most days, and a "How are you?" would be nothing short of a miracle. So Ellie took her trusty straw broom, beginning her sweeping at the opposite end of the barn.

"I already did that half," Jason broke the silence after Ellie completed a few brushes, and Ellie shrugged, glad to have less work. However, unlike the other mornings, he didn't tell her what her next task was. So Ellie waited patiently, stroking Pixie's nose through the bars of her stall door.

The black overo filly curiously nibbled at her fingers, bringing an upward twitch to Ellie's lips as she glanced at Jason out of the corner of her eye. He was wearing his usual ratty jeans and a black tank top, sweat already collecting on his exposed skin even though it wasn't even noon. Ellie would take her plaid hoodie off, but that would mean revealing her bite mark. She supposed girls would find it attractive, watching the way the muscles in Jason's back and shoulders tensed and relaxed with the motions of the broom. Back in Boston, if someone like Jason walked into the cafeteria, she and Riley would take bets to see how fast a girl would hook herself onto his arm. The thought made her smile sadly.

"So…" Jason relieved the endless silence between them, which in Ellie's opinion was too long, even for him. Ellie gave him her full attention, leaning against the stall while Pixie lost interest and returned to eating hay. Jason stopped sweeping, setting the broom aside in favor of shoving his hands into his front pockets, chewing his lip as he studied the floor. The silence stretched out between them, leaving Ellie hanging and Jason with heat creeping up his neck and face.

"What?" Ellie drew out the word, getting the same sinking feeling she had at the kitchen table.

Jason pursed his lips, a strand of dark hair falling into his eyes. A few more moments of excruciating silence followed before he finally gathered up the nerve to mutter, "You…like girls, eh?" Ellie had to strain her ears to hear him. He almost sounded…disappointed.

Ellie shrugged, "I…guess. Why?"

In truth, she had never given it much thought, she just felt whatever she felt. Kissing Riley felt right, natural. She didn't care much for gawking at Jason in a tank top.

Jason was quiet for so long, she thought it was an end to the conversation. But he didn't move from his post by the stall door, so Ellie could tell he wanted to say more. Eventually, he scuffed the floor with his heel asking, "When did you…umm, know? That you liked girls?"

"When did _you _know that _you _liked girls?" Ellie shot back, which seemed to jolt Jason back to his former self, "I just do, okay?"

Jason snapped his head up, meeting Ellie's eyes for once. The curiosity and nervousness almost instantly drained from his countenance, which resumed its dulled, stony mask again. Ellie would almost use the word _numbed_, because it was impossible to tell what he felt, or how much, just by looking at his face. The tension in his shoulders and chest gave her a better indication, which were slowly relaxing at the moment. _Good, _Ellie thought, _he's back to his normal self._

"Nevermind…Maria's here," Jason informed her, and Ellie turned to see said woman approaching the barn door. She might not have been close enough to hear their extremely awkward conversation, but if she did she was kind enough not to mention it.

Maria gave the pair a wave, shoving one hand into the front pocket of her scrub pants. They were a faded blue, matching the V-neck shirt, and Ellie remembered her saying at one point over dinner that she studied as a nurse before the outbreak. "Hey, you two. Ellie, I want to give you some work at the infirmary, if you're not too busy here," Maria smiled tiredly. Ellie noticed the dark circles under her eyes, wondering how early she had really woken up for her shift.

"Uh, sure," Ellie agreed, glancing back at Jason for permission. He spun on his heel and disappeared into the tack room, silently indicating he didn't care. So Ellie followed Maria down the dirt street and into up the steps of a large longhouse shaped like a T. The scene inside the double doors was much the same as any triage or small infirmary. Eight cots were set up on either side, the row on the left side having a large space for access to the second set of double doors, which had a sign taped to one that read "Operating Room-Staff Only" on a piece of paper with black marker.

Two pairs of windows on either side, situated between beds, let light spill through and brighten the building. There were only three patients, two with an IV stuck into their forearms, and one that had a bandage around his head. He was reading a book, propped up by pillows. The two with an IV were sleeping, gauze wrapped around various limbs. Ellie guessed gunshot wounds.

"What do you want me to do?" Ellie asked. There didn't seem much for her _to _do, in fact the place seemed quite boring. Jason's awkwardness was better than boredom.

"I'll show you how to check vital signs, and how to record the patients' conditions. Dr. Anderson will help you," Maria explained, pointing to a fifty-something, balding, gray-haired man in a white lab coat. Besides Maria and another black-haired nurse, he was the only other professional in the room. The other nurse's long, black hair was tied back neatly in a bun, and her skin was a dark tan colour. Ellie almost did a double-take at the doctor; he was perfectly camouflaged against the white-washed walls. Ellie nodded, wrinkling her nose a little at the acidic stench of rubbing alcohol that seemed to seep out of the very walls.

"When you're done, you can play cards with some of the patients, or talk with them. They'd like that, we don't get a lot of visitors. I'll just be in the operating room cleaning things up if you need me," Maria continued, giving Ellie a gentle shove towards Dr. Anderson as she disappeared through the double doors. Ellie caught sight of a metal operating table, a giant overhead lamp, and an array of surgical instruments on a nearby table as the doors bounced shut, some she had never even seen before. She was curious, but she knew Maria wouldn't let her explore. Nobody knew when the next emergency surgery would need to be performed.

Dr. Anderson smiled politely at Ellie, briefly introducing himself as he handed her a clipboard. The other nurse completely ignored them, going about her duties making the beds, checking the cabinets at the back of the room, and making her own notes on her own clipboard.

Despite Ellie's initial thoughts about how boring the job would be, she soon became interested in the process of taking vitals, explaining how IV drips worked, and the basics of caring for patients. 's voice was fatherly, calm from years of practice, and his fascination about the human body slowly started to rub off on Ellie. He spoke of the remarkable adaptability of the human mind and body, and how many times he saw patients on the brink of death pull through despite severe injuries and debilitating illnesses. Dr. Anderson held a high respect for the human body, and Ellie could tell just from hearing him talk.

Once Ellie got the basics down, Dr. Anderson let her play cards with the man across the aisle, apparently whose name was Oliver. Oliver was freckled, red-haired, and couldn't be older than 25. He seemed pleased to have a companion to relieve his boredom. He only had a minor cut along his scalp from being grazed by a bullet while on patrol, and the hair that poked out from underneath the bandage was as bright as a carrot's.

Oliver put his book down, pulling a deck of cards out from the nightstand's drawer to his left. Ellie pulled up a chair on his right, and Dr. Anderson gave him a stern look. "Don't be teaching this young lady how to gamble, you hear?" he warned, but Ellie caught a hint of playfulness in his tone.

"Yessir. I promise," Oliver chuckled, giving the doctor a mock salute. Dr. Anderson muttered something under his breath, going to check on the black-haired nurse.

Ellie cocked her head at the young man. "What's gambling?" she queried.

A wide smile broke out across Oliver's freckled face, and he lowered his voice so the doctor wouldn't hear, "Gamblin's like betting. Works great with cards, like whenever someone wins a game, they take all the stuff the losers bet. You gotta be good to win, though."

"What kind of games do you gamble in?" Ellie asked. She chewed her lip as the memories of how many times she had lost at cards to Joel came to mind.

Oliver chuckled, "Poker's my favourite. Blackjack and Texas hold'em are also pretty popular. Wanna learn how to play Blackjack? It's real easy."

Ellie shrugged and agreed, having nothing else to do since Maria wouldn't let her leave. While Oliver shuffled the cards he explained, "Each player in this game gets two cards. The name of the game is to get to 21 without going over. Sound easy enough?"

Ellie nodded. Oliver handed her two cards face-down on the bed, and placed two on his lap. Ellie quickly got the hang of it, and soon she was winning just as many games as the young man across from her. Once bored of Blackjack, Oliver switched to explaining the rules of poker. Ellie hopped over to the other bed opposite Oliver, using the chair as a sort of table between them. It took her longer to wrap her head around the rules, but eventually she started improving.

Dr. Anderson would shoot them glances every now and again, and since they were having fun, he didn't bother disturbing them. He came over once and, smirking, whispered to Ellie, "Use the Ace." Oliver promptly shooed him away with a few empty threats. The peaceful silence soon settled back in, Ellie resuming her avid studying of her cards.

Suddenly, couple of men burst through the infirmary doors, carrying a young brunet man on a stretcher between them. He was deathly pale and unconscious. Ellie didn't get a good look at his injuries, but she could tell there was a lot of blood from the soaked-through gauze wrapped haphazardly around one shoulder and his abdomen as he passed.

Ellie's stomach clenched. He looked worse than Joel had last winter, where he had lain for weeks on the verge of death. A chill stole over her and she shivered.

A woman jogged behind them, carrying a black jacket that trailed blood across the floor as she hurriedly crossed the room. She cradled a sheathed sword in her arms, hastily depositing both down on a chair as Dr. Anderson barked orders to the men and the nurse, all of whom rushed inside the operating room.

"He don't got long…"Oliver murmured, bringing Ellie's attention back to him.

"You don't think they can help him?" Ellie raised an eyebrow at him.

Oliver sombrely shook his head. "I've seen those types of injuries before, and with that amount of blood…I'd say a few days at most. With that damage, organs usually fail, and they die of that if they hadn't died of blood loss already," he sighed, "Poor guy, he looks young, too."

Ellie snorted at him, "You're awfully hopeful."

"I've seen my fair share. Wonder where he came from, haven't seen him before," shrugged Oliver, going back to the card game. Ellie imitated him in reply, concentrating on her cards. She could hear the medical jargon Dr. Anderson and the other nurses were using with each other, none of it making sense to her. The three people who had accompanied the newest patient walked out of the infirmary, exhaustion and anxiety written all over their faces.

After a few minutes, with everyone in the operating room, Oliver broke the silence that had settled on between himself and Ellie. "Why don't you check what that guy has? I wanna see that sword," the red-haired man nudged Ellie, pointing to the coat and said weapon that had been deposited on the chair in the corner.

"That's not our stuff, though," Ellie reminded him.

Oliver gave her a look that indicated she should stop being a goody two-shoes. "Look, that guy in there had so many chunks missing from him, he'll probably die on the table. Doc said I shouldn't get up, but take a peek for me," he winked, and Ellie rolled her eyes. He was probably a scavenger at heart. Ellie was used to scavenging, but not when the owner of the stuff was around.

She reluctantly snuck over to the jacket, wiping the fresh blood off as much as she could with a rag. Hanging it on the back of the chair, she almost dropped it in surprise at the weight. This wasn't just a jacket, it was full-on body armour. Ellie couldn't say she had seen a trench coat that doubled as body armour. Inspecting the jacket, she fingered the tears, a neat one she guessed was done by a knife, and a crater of one that would probably need a patch. Then there was one that was so large on the shoulder that she could only match it to the sword.

"Jesus…Oliver's right," Ellie breathed, assuming that all three tears correlated to the brunet man's injuries. She felt the pockets, finding small hidden knife sheaths, some still with knives in them, others with well-protected smoke bombs, and various supplies like gauze and a few packets of unused stitches. She found more knives, pistols, and other small weapons on the guy's belt. Ellie cocked her head at the sword, musing over the tarnished golden hand guard. It was shaped like a dragon.

_This guy's loaded…_she smirked to herself. Joel would be impressed for sure.

Going back to the jacket, she rubbed a finger over the insignia embroidered on the tip of the hood: two intertwined snakes poised to strike. She wondered if it meant anything, along with the silver winged horse intricately sewn onto one flap of the collar. Searching one of the breast pockets, she fingered a thin piece of paper. Pulling it out, she realized it wasn't paper. It was a Polaroid, like the one she had of herself and Riley.

"I promise…" Ellie mouthed the words scrawled across the back in letters that looked more carved into than written on the Polaroid.

Flipping it over, she almost dropped it in shock.

She couldn't deny the boy in the photo was Jason, but it looked like a slightly younger version of him. He was kissing a blonde girl, and she looked surprised. _Why would that guy on the operating table have Jason's picture? Did Jason know him? Who was the girl in the photo?_ Ellie's only reply was a flurry of more questions that whirled in her mind as she pocketed the Polaroid, returning to Oliver.


	6. Release

Ellie picked her head up when the operating room doors flapped outward after what felt like hours, dully bouncing off the wall as Maria, the black-haired nurse, and Dr. Anderson emerged, carrying the injured brunet man on the stretcher he arrived on. Maria's face was lined with stress and exhaustion, and Dr. Anderson looked like he could sleep for days. After they had deposited the stranger on the cot beside Oliver's, Maria muttered to Ellie that she was free to leave, her voice as tired and strained as her expression.

But although she was free to leave, Ellie couldn't help hovering around Oliver's cot for a few more minutes, studying the young man's injuries.

His left shoulder was heavily bandaged, and his arm was in a sling. Gauze was wrapped around his abdomen, where Ellie could imagine the mosaic of stitches he undoubtedly had. The man wasn't so pale anymore, though he had still had a long ways to go before returning to a healthy colour. Like the other two patients opposite him, he had an IV protruding from his wrist.

The injured man's breathing was shallow and ragged, suggesting that he was fighting for each breath, struggling to just stay alive. He reminded Ellie of how Joel fought to keep breathing when he had been impaled by the rod of rebar last fall, and she didn't know if her encouragements helped any, or if Joel could even hear her, but it made her feel better. Maybe this man wasn't so deep into unconsciousness that he had no awareness of what was going on around him? It was worth a try. He looked like he could use a few kind words, and if he knew Jason…maybe he wasn't so bad.

So Ellie pulled up a chair next to the young man, pursing her lips as she rested her elbows on the edge on the thin mattress. Then a thought occurred to her: she didn't even know his name. Ellie glanced up, catching Maria watching her as she cleaned the man's black jacket, wiping all the blood off with a damp rag.

"Do we know his name?" Ellie asked her.

Maria silently nodded, pulling a tattered, faded card from her back pocket. Ellie recognized it as a military photo ID pass. Soldiers back in Boston usually had them, not that they were much use unless they were for forgery and smugglers. Maria got up and handed it to her, looking grim and exhausted as her gaze settled on the man she had just helped save. "I'm not sure if he's French, but his name in English is Dominic," she informed Ellie, shuffling back to the man's jacket.

Ellie studied the faded, worn card in her hands, trying to match the picture on the card to the man in front of her. He had the same hair colour, but the teenager in the picture couldn't be over sixteen or seventeen. Ellie's brows drew together as she wondered why the photo had never been updated.

She could tell the man was the same kid in the ID photo, but his older self just barely resembled the picture. They had the same defined jawline and sharp cheekbones, but that was where the similarities stopped. The man in front of her had faint scars scattered across his face like freckles, and if he wasn't so pale, they would be more noticeable, even in a photo. The teenager in the picture was missing the particularly jagged one across his throat.

Dominic looked more like Jason than anything. If Jason hadn't told her once that he didn't have any siblings, Ellie would have guessed that this Dominic and Jason were brothers. He and Jason weren't even that much older than each other. Squinting at the just barely legible birth date, Ellie did some quick math and figured Dominic was only 21, while Jason was seventeen.

Ellie suddenly felt a twinge of guilt, chewing her lip as she cast her gaze down at the white bed sheets. Remembering the Polaroid of Jason and that blonde girl, she dug it out from her back pocket and stared at the writing scrawled across the back. "I promise…" she mumbled to herself, "Promise what?" Ellie studied the photo more closely, as if the longer she stared at it, the clearer the answer would become. But it remained just as obscure, revealing nothing.

She shrugged, tucking the puzzle away in her mind to solve later. Ellie gently pressed the card and the photo into Dominic's limp right hand with a soft, "Sorry for taking it." To her surprise, Dominic's fingers lightly closed around the objects, as if more out of an automatic response than a conscious decision. He mumbled something in his sleep, and it had to be in a different language because to Ellie it sounded like gibberish. It certainly wasn't English.

Dominic stirred as if waking up, and his breathing became sharper as his semi-conscious mind registered the pain. Ellie threw a worried glance at Maria, who also heard the change in his breathing pattern. She dashed into the operating room and quickly returned with a syringe of morphine. She injected it into the IV, and Dominic's slight writhing and whimpers gradually ceased.

Letting a relaxed breath out, Dominic groggily cracked open an eye, yet a few seconds later he began blinking rapidly, as if fighting the urge to be pulled back into unconsciousness by both the drugs and his body's demand for rest. "…Myriam? That…you, love?" the young man queried in a slur, his glassy gaze resting on Ellie.

Ellie was about to shake her head and answer no, but Maria gave her a pointed glance. Ellie imperceptibly nodded, albeit skeptical, and she gave Dominic her best fake smile. "Yeah, it's me," Ellie replied softly, gently wrapping her fingers around the man's wrist. She was close enough to read the words coiled around his upper right arm, but it was lying against his side, so most of them were hidden.

The edges of Dominic's thin lips quirked up, his eyes fluttered shut, and with the next exhale, his head lolled to one side. Ellie unwrapped her fingers from his cold skin, hearing his breathing return to its shallow pattern. But this time, it didn't sound like the next breath would be the man's last.

"Thanks, Ellie. I think he needed that," Maria nodded to the redhead, returning to her post by the young man's jacket.

Ellie lifted her brows and cocked her head at Maria, resisting the urge to wag her finger at her in a playful warning. "That's lying, you know," she drawled with a smirk.

"I know," Maria retorted firmly, giving her a sharp look that suggested her patience had run out for sarcasm, "but the best we can do for him now is make him feel better, give him something to stay alive for. If that means lying, then it's a good lie." Maybe she was overdoing it a little on the reprimanding, but God was she tired. She hoped Ellie knew she meant well. Maria dropped her shoulders, giving a light sigh and a tiny, strained smile as she waved Ellie off.

The redhead chewed her lip, giving Dominic one last glance before departing for the barn. She felt uneasy as she strode along, kicking at a bit of gravel. _False hope is the worst kind of lie…_

When she arrived back at the barn, she didn't see Jason. But, the scraping sound of a boot on wood from a back corner of the hayloft gave her an indication of where he might be. So Ellie ascended the stairs to the loft, as quietly as she could, but even then the creaking of the old wooden steps threatened to betray her presence. As she came into view of Jason, a small smile crept up her face.

Jason had propped himself up against a hay bale, head lolled to one side as a gray tabby cat slept in his lap, draped over one thigh and purring blissfully. One hand limply held a worn Polaroid photo, the edges curled like it had been held too many times. Jason slept deeply, with a few twitches of his lip every now and again. Ellie never noticed how truly exhausted and vulnerable he was until it showed in the lines on his forehead, the perpetual furrow of his brow, and how fitfully he slept. He didn't look peaceful or untroubled like other people did in sleep.

Ellie silently, tentatively crept over to him, making almost no noise as she settled herself next to Jason. The silence and peace of the barn blanketed her, and she imitated Jason by propping herself up against the hay bale. Glancing down, she noticed the faded photo in his hand. It was of Jason and the blonde girl, like the one Dominic had, except this time they were smiling at the camera. Ellie felt sorrow spike within her, comparing the Jason in the picture to the one she knew. In the picture, there was so much life and happiness in Jason's eyes. The girl looked the same. But the Jason she knew, there was no such joy in his expression, no brightness, no life. It was as if it had been all drained out of him. She would bet anything it was that girl who made him so happy.

_Maybe…if we found that girl, Jason would be happy again…That injured guy has the same picture, maybe he knows where that girl is? _Ellie mused, her mind wandering back to the young man's photo of Jason and the blonde girl, _Jason must've been real happy when she was around…_

Ellie gently set the photo beside her leg, loosely intertwining her fingers with Jason's in an attempt to bring him some comfort. Jason seemed to sense her presence in his sleep, shifting closer and curling himself around a surprised Ellie. The disturbed cat waddled away, spreading itself out on a nearby hay bale as Jason draped a lanky arm around Ellie's torso. Ellie stiffened considerably, almost making the decision to scuttle away from the foreign amount of intimate contact.

Then she thought back to Maria's small lecture on lying, and she decided that if it helped Jason, maybe a bit of false hope wasn't so bad.

Besides, at this proximity, she could plainly see the dried tear streaks on his face.

"Hey, Ryebread…" Jason quietly purred in his sleep, nestling his head into Ellie's shoulder. Not having a clue as to how to respond or what to do when a boy insisted on using her as a human pillow, Ellie focused on keeping her breathing under control and silencing the alarms going off in her head.

_He's not hurting you, just breathe…he doesn't know it's you, it doesn't mean anything, _Ellie's galloping thoughts slowly gave way to tranquility, her rigid muscles gradually relaxing as she acclimated to Jason's body heat, the intensity of which she hadn't noticed until now. The heat from her own face slowly receded, and she came to enjoy the new feeling of having Jason use her as a pillow. Not wanting to act heartless by moving away when Jason finally seemed at peace, Ellie settled into the hay bale to take her own light nap.

Joel was a fitful sleeper too, constantly muttering and flinching in his slumber. Ellie had grown used to the sounds of his restlessness. But Jason found comfort, his deep breaths were quiet and calming. Ellie listened to them, matching her breaths to Jason's to slow her racing heart. Accompanied by his body heat, Jason's breathing gradually made Ellie's eyelids heavy. The rising and falling of his chest sent a gentle rhythm throughout Ellie's body. She succumbed gladly to it, falling into a light sleep.

* * *

><p>Ellie awoke to the sunlight filtering through the cracks in the roof, the angle of which causing the light to hit her face straight on. She guessed it was well past noon, but it was far from being dark yet. Jason stirred at the jerk of her head, sleepily rubbing his eyes. Ellie was amazed that he didn't wake at the sound of footsteps, but of a single movement of the person next to him.<p>

Ellie remained stock-still, unable to predict his reaction. The last time she had seen him, he hadn't been very friendly. Jason likewise tensed, realizing the person sleeping next to him wasn't who he had been lost in the memories of. The peaceful silence of the barn became palpable, fraught with tension.

However, instead of viciously accusing her like Ellie thought he would, Jason asked a simple question, his voice almost childlike, "Where is it? The photo, where is it?" It was like a toddler asking where someone had hidden his most prized possession.

Ellie didn't know if it was a rhetorical question, but she took the opportunity to get a few answers out of Jason before he fully collected himself and clammed up again. She held the photo out of his reach, and his eyes locked on to it, his hand shooting out to snatch it with lightning speed. But Ellie's body was in the way, and she refused to let him have it.

"What's her name, Jason?" Ellie giggled playfully.

"Give it back, Ellie!" Jason growled, grabbing at thin air. He grit his teeth when Ellie asked again, grudgingly replying, "Her name's Riley, now give it!"

Ellie relented, giggling as Jason plucked the photo from her fingers, sliding it into his back pocket with the utmost care.

"You're mean," he spat at her, brushing the dust and hay from his pants as he stalked off down the stairs.

Ellie rolled her eyes, grinning at his annoyance as she followed him. _God, he gets riled up too easy, when will he learn to relax?_

Jason whipped around as Ellie reached the main floor of the barn, and she started in surprise at his icy death glare. "Calm down, I was just messing with you!" Ellie smiled playfully to ease the tension in the air, but she could hear the slight strain in her voice.

He was not relenting, as she had expected. She felt a sudden prick of guilt as she began to suspect there was more to the story of the blonde woman in the photo.

"You better not, it's all I have left of her," Jason hissed viciously, and the intimidation worked enough on Ellie to make her hunch her shoulders, but not break her gaze.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Ellie frowned, "Do you want to talk about it? I didn't know it was painful for you."

"Painful?" Jason started sarcastically, but it soon turned to a quiet bitterness, "I know I'm never going to see her again. I've accepted that, so what's painful for me now? She's probably dead, anyway."

Ellie could tell Jason was trying hard to keep himself composed, but his mask was slowly crumbling. The muscles in his shoulders and arms were taut as wires, about to snap at any moment.

To say Ellie had struck a chord was an understatement. Jason felt the tension in his shoulders slowly giving way to an uncontrollable shake, not from the threat of tears, but from the barely contained fury that was starting to boil within him. Unknowingly, Ellie had snapped that fury to life and let loose all the pain Jason had so carefully tucked away inside him. The dam he had built was about to explode, and as the shaking grew more violent, he realized there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Maybe I still have that hope because I haven't seen her-" Jason's voice caught, and he clamped his mouth shut, grinding his teeth as if to keep a particularly painful image out of his mind.

_Corpse. _Ellie chewed her bottom lip, filling in the rest of the sentence.

"Maybe it's good you still have hope, but you haven't moved on. You never allowed yourself to recover," she said gently, hoping to stave off the anger she could see smoldering in his eyes.

Jason let out a mirthless bark of laughter, one that sent shivers of fear down Ellie's spine. "I haven't moved on? Do you even know what I was like a year ago?" his voice slowly increased in volume, and Ellie took a few steps back. For a moment, she couldn't keep the look of shock from her face. He looked like he was tempted to hit her. "I was a wreck; I wouldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, it took everything I had just to get up in the morning! If you tried to be my friend a year ago, I would've strangled you."

The fear that Jason would hit her had partially passed, but Ellie could feel frustration licking at her insides, leaving a sour taste in her mouth. It quickly turned to irritation the more she fed off Jason's anger. "But you still haven't moved on, you're still suffering! Jesus, Jason, just let someone help you—"

She was interrupted by Jason's feral snarl. "I don't suffer because of what happened anymore. And I don't need people like you bringing those memories back," he growled darkly at her.

_He's totally in denial. _Ellie sighed, just getting more pissed off by his stubbornness. "What if that's what you need? What if you need to remember that stuff to deal with it?" she asked.

"I don't need you playing fucking therapist, Ellie!" Jason brutally yelled at her, "You don't know what happened to me, what kind of hell I had to go through in Denver!"

Startled, but half-expecting his outburst, Ellie took a few steps back to give him more space. The silence that followed left a bitter taste in her mouth, but it wasn't the kind she was unfamiliar with. She had felt the same kind of silence for a few moments back at the ranch house with Joel after their argument.

"Then tell me. If you do, I'll tell you about who I lost," Ellie offered gently.

Jason was still leaning against the wooden column, but now he looked less like he wanted to break it and more like he needed it to keep his legs from buckling underneath him. He imperceptibly nodded, gritting his teeth against the onslaught of horrible memories that flooded his mind. "If you speak a word of this to anyone, I will find out, and I will hunt you down myself. Understand?" Jason's piercing gaze stabbed right through Ellie, and she nodded, her mouth set in a grim line.

"I was…a survivor. Of a battle, between Cobras and the military. Almost everyone died, on both sides," Jason started haltingly and swallowed, taking a deep breath before he continued, "But…on my sixteenth birthday I was torn away from Riley and my parents to become a Cobra."

He stopped again, taking a few moments to compose himself. "I will never forget how Riley suffered once she found out I wasn't coming back," it came a tiny bit easier to him now, "She didn't know I was a Cobra, and I couldn't tell her without being exposed and having both of us killed. Ian convinced her that I was dead, and…" Jason bit down hard on his knuckles as his shoulders shook violently again. Ellie spotted a bead of blood form on his hand.

Ellie took a few steps closer, wanting to comfort him, but still wary in case he exploded again. "What happened?" she softly prompted.

A distant look fell across Jason's eyes, the same one he got when he was remembering painful things. It was one Ellie knew well. "Riley, she…she tried to commit suicide, but I stopped her. And you know what?" the first tears collected at the edges of Jason's eyes, "She was so far gone…she was suffering so much, she didn't even recognize me. It was my fault. I was too much of a coward to tell her what happened, I watched her suffer and I did _nothing_…I broke her."

Silent sobs wracked Jason's body, and the normally strong, stoic boy was crippled by his own sorrow and guilt, sinking to the floor and weeping into his kneecaps.

Ellie cautiously approached, taking a seat next to him. She bit her lip uncertainly, fiddling with her hands. _C'mon, don't just sit there. Do something! _She scolded herself as she listened to Jason cry. It tugged at her heart, but nothing came to mind that she could do to ease his pain. _Should I talk to him? What the hell can I say to that? His girlfriend tried to fucking kill herself and he thinks it's his fault!_

Ellie resisted to the urge to sigh out loud in utter frustration, tilting her head back to rest on the wooden column. Jason felt the movement beside him, and he relaxed one arm as if accepting her presence. It wasn't much of a shift, and when Ellie decided to rest her head in the crook it created, he allowed her.

She felt a bit of the tension release from his arm, and the effect the simple gesture had on him seemed to soothe him a little. Encouraged, Ellie moved her hand up to comfortingly stroke Jason's back, first lightly and cautiously, and then with more confidence when the muscles there started to relax under her touch. She wondered if it was more out of exhaustion than calmness, but when he began taking deeper breaths between sobs, Ellie figured it was the latter. She switched to rubbing soothing circles into his shoulder after a while, smirking a little when she caught a tiny smile tug at his lips.

He rested his forehead against hers, the salty tears on his cheeks dampening her bangs and her skin, but he wasn't really crying anymore.

Ellie's smile widened at the flicker of life in his eyes, like the burden he had been carrying was finally lifting.

Jason imitated Ellie easily, but his grin faded as a certain thoughtfulness settled over his features. Ellie was about to question him, but the words died in her throat as he tilted his head, brushing his lips against hers.


	7. Reality Check

The spark from Jason's lips on hers barely registered in Ellie's brain as she pushed herself away, heart pounding and breaths coming in short gasps, her eyes wide. She scuttled back a few feet, pulling her knees up to her chest, focusing intently on the straw broom leaning against the stall door opposite her while heat spread up from her neck, burning her cheeks.

_Holy shit…What the hell just happened?_ Ellie counted her inhales and exhales in an effort to control her breathing.

A long sigh escaped through Jason's nose, and Ellie caught him unravelling his long legs in her peripheral vision. His boots scraping against the concrete floor weren't unlike nails on a chalkboard, unbearably loud in the thick silence that stretched much further than the few feet between them.

For one panicked moment, Ellie thought he was going to approach her again, but when she actually turned her head, he strode right past her. He completely ignored her, he didn't even spare her a glance as he undid the latch on Pixie's stall, slinging the halter and lead rope hanging on a nearby hook over his inked up shoulder.

Ellie saw boots and black horse hooves cross her field of vision a moment later, the latter sending vibrations through the floor and up her spine. Ellie shivered along with them, the heat on her face flash-freezing from the cold that seemed to emanate from Jason. She hastily made her leave before he could return from the paddocks out back and freeze her to her core.

Nobody was home to hear her stomp up the stairs in Tommy and Maria's cottage and slam her bedroom door. Sometime during the past week she had moved into the room beside Joel's, and she was still getting used to having her own bed. It was colder and lonelier sleeping separated from him, but she figured her survival didn't depend upon sleeping near Joel anymore.

Ellie moodily plopped herself on the bed, grabbing one of her _Savage Starlight_ comics from the unruly pile on her nightstand. She barely scanned the pages, unable to concentrate on anything but her racing heart and the brush of Jason's lips against hers. She finally gave up with a frustrated groan, tossing the tattered comic at the dull, beige wall.

She pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on her kneecaps so she could glare at her brass doorknob. _What the fuck's wrong with me? He didn't even kiss you, stupid! Why are you freaking out over it? _She wished she could stop the blush from creeping up her neck.

Ellie sighed loudly, flopping on her back to stare at the ceiling instead.

Her staring contest continued until the quiet of the house blanketed her, gentle and tranquil, making her eyelids grow heavy as she fell into a light nap.

* * *

><p>Ellie gradually awoke, the wispy images of Jason from her dreams falling away like dusty cobwebs. <em>Even in my sleep he won't leave me alone…<em>she groaned.

Sitting upright at the sound of the screen door clapping shut downstairs, Ellie tuned in to Maria and Dr. Anderson's urgent voices floating up from the kitchen, shattering the peaceful silence of the house with their arguing.

Ellie was glad for the distraction. She tiptoed to the top landing of the staircase, her shadow accompanying her wherever the rectangles of deep orange sunlight framed it on the wall.

She carefully sat down on the top step, praying the wood beneath her feet wouldn't groan and betray her presence, listening.

"So what do you suppose we do then? Dominic's getting worse," that was Maria, and judging by the strain in her voice, her stress levels must have been through the roof.

Ellie could imagine Dr. Anderson with both hands on the table, leaning heavily on it. "As I said, we're doing the best we can," he sounded like he had difficulty keeping his tone neutral.

"So you think he has botulism?" Maria queried in a worried voice.

There was a short silence, and then Dr. Anderson replied, "It's very likely. No deep tendon reflex, breathing difficulties…It's only a matter of time before paralysis sets in. I'm sure the boys out there in the field tried their best to keep the wound clean, but you know how messy gunshot and stab wounds can be." He paused for a moment, as if to ponder something. Then, "The bullet or the sword could've easily come in contact with the bacteria from soil, grimy floors…Who knows how far the bacteria's spread in his body? Even doctors aren't perfect, there could have been something we missed when Dominic came in."

"You think he's gonna pull through?" Maria asked.

Ellie heard the table creak as slow, methodical footsteps sent faint vibrations through the wooden stairs. "If we can perform surgery again to get contaminated tissue out, it should help. I can see if we have any antitoxin. If not…well, he'll be bedridden for weeks anyway," Dr. Anderson said, his tone grim.

They were both silent for a long time, long enough to make Ellie think that was the end of the conversation. But then Maria's quieter, more tired voice floated up the staircase, "_If _Dominic survives, what then? What are we going to do with him?"

"That's something for you and Tommy to discuss. You cross that bridge when you come to it," the doctor advised sagely.

"But that's the problem. We have no idea where he came from. We could be making a mistake, what if someone tried to kill him for a reason? I saw his jacket, I know what Cobras were capable of in Denver. Istill remember what they were capable of, and back then they didn't have anywhere near as much power as Tommy said they did a few years ago," some of the stress crept back into Maria's voice.

The image of Dominic's photo flashed across Ellie's mind's eye, and a small spike of hope came with it. She descended the stairs, the soft creaking announcing her presence. Maria and Dr. Anderson picked their heads up, giving her strained smiles.

"Sorry if we disturbed you, Ellie, we didn't think anyone was home yet," Maria apologized.

Ellie casually shrugged, hiding the fact that she had been eavesdropping with ease. "It's okay. Are you guys talking about Dominic?"

Dr. Anderson nodded, his mouth set in a grim line. "Yes…he's having some complications after surgery."

Ellie chewed her lip in thought, fidgeting a bit. Maria cocked her head asking, "Got something on your mind, Ellie?"

Ellie snapped her head up, meeting Maria's eyes for a second before casting her gaze downward again. "Yeah…I found a picture that Dominic had. Jason has a matching one, and I was just thinking, you know, that Jason might know him. He said he had a friend in the Cobras," she explained, and Maria narrowed her eyes at Ellie.

"You were snooping through Dominic's things?" Maria asked disapprovingly, in that way that meant she already knew the answer.

Dr. Anderson placed a hand on Maria's shoulder, diverting her attention before she could give Ellie a lecture, "We'll talk about that later. You talk to Jason, I have to get back to the infirmary." Maria nodded in agreement, and she and Ellie headed to the barn as the sun disappeared behind the trees in the West.

Upon arrival, they found Jason forking hay down from the loft. He nodded to his visitors, his gaze passing over Ellie. Maria made a 'come here' motion at him, and Jason shot them a suspicious glance, which turned to an icy glare directed at Ellie. He rested the pitchfork against a tower of hay bales, hopping with ease from the hayloft's edge. Ellie and Maria visibly flinched as he landed on one knee, and the latter looked like she wanted to scold him for giving her a mini heart attack.

"Jason," Maria began after she took a moment to recover, "we have a couple of questions for you."

Jason crossed his arms, the black ink of his military tattoo glittering under the barn's lights. He lifted one eyebrow, encouraging her to continue.

Maria pursed her lips, taking a moment to decide how best to explain the situation to him. "We…have reason to believe one of your old Cobra friends has turned up in our infirmary this morning. Did you ever work with a guy named Dominic?"

Jason almost immediately shook his head, dispelling any hope that dared to rise within Ellie. "Nope, doesn't ring any bells," he replied, his tone laced with enough irritation to indicate he didn't want to be bothered.

"You sure?" Maria's eyebrows drew together as if she wasn't convinced, "He's got the same tattoo as you, same squad number and everything."

Jason hesitated for a moment, enough to convince Ellie that he wasn't being entirely honest, too. Or maybe he was just being more of an asshole than usual to get them off his back, she couldn't tell which. "I told you, I don't know anybody by that name," he snapped, quickly collecting himself, "Now if you'd excuse me, I have hungry horses to feed." As if to reinforce his words, Pixie nickered impatiently from a nearby stall.

"But he has the same picture of you and Riley, you have to know him!" Ellie interjected before Jason could stride off.

Jason froze, keeping a wary eye on Ellie. "He has a picture of me and Riley?" he repeated, all hostility gone from his voice. Ellie nodded vigorously in reply. Jason's lips formed a hard line as if to keep a particular memory at bay. "What's his full name?" he queried, lifting an eyebrow in genuine interest.

Ellie gave Maria a look, and she pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to recall the memory. "Uh…damn, what was it? Oh!" she snapped her fingers, "Dominic Ian Rowland, that's it."

Jason's eyes went wide as dinner plates, his jaw falling slightly open. He quickly composed himself, pushing past the pair as he broke into a jog, making a beeline for the infirmary. Ellie and Maria exchanged relieved smiles, the former patting Ellie on the head with a "Good job". They ran to catch up with Jason.

When they arrived at the infirmary, they almost collided with him as he unexpectedly skidded to a halt just inside the doors. Jason threw a curious glance at Dominic, hesitantly stepping over to him like he wasn't sure he had the right person. His eyes flicked between Dominic's face and the tattoo on his upper right arm, his brows drawing together at his mismatched memories.

Dominic, on the other hand, stared listlessly up at the wooden rafters, unresponsive to the commotion by the entrance. It was like he was completely consumed by his own exhaustion, and couldn't focus on anything else.

"Isn't that the guy you remember?" Ellie asked, hoping the puzzle pieces would all fit together.

From the uncertain look on Jason's face, she knew some pieces were still missing. "Yeah, but…Ian was blond, and he had blue eyes."

"So it's not him?" Maria said with a hint of disappointment.

Jason smirked, his gaze resting on Ian's tattoo, "It's him. I guess we were both guilty of wearing disguises." He strode over to Ian's bedside, pulling up a chair. Maria rushed over to Dr. Anderson, and they both disappeared into the operating room.

"Hey, Cobra. Long time, no see, eh?" Jason frowned, resting his elbows on the edge of the mattress. Ellie took a seat on the bed behind him, feeling her stomach twist at the languid look in Dominic's eyes.

Dominic took a ragged breath, just barely managing a tiny smile of recognition as he rested his dulled gaze on Jason. "Ponyboy…so you're alive," he slurred after a few moments, his voice but a raspy whisper.

"You won't be if you keep up like this. What the hell happened to you?" Jason queried.

"I was…bested by a rat…and the King of Dragons…" Dominic explained vaguely with a few coughs. His eyes remained dim and unfocused, as if a fog had blanketed his mind and made it difficult to formulate coherent thoughts, let alone speak.

Jason and Ellie simultaneously cocked their heads at his cryptic riddle, but while Ellie had reason to believe he was delirious, Jason puzzled over it for a few moments like what Dominic was saying actually made sense.

Jason's expression grew dark as the realization dawned on him. "Jerry stabbed you with _Bahamut_? Shit, you've lost your touch since Denver…" he tried to make light of the situation, but his smirk was more like a frown. Dominic rolled his eyes.

"How the hell did you get that from 'rat' and 'King of Dragons'?" Ellie asked incredulously from behind Jason. He promptly ignored her.

"I…kept my promise. Riley's safe…she misses you," Ian smiled weakly at Jason's look of pure relief and gratitude, wincing a bit as Jason clasped his hand, resting his forehead on his knuckles like he was thanking a higher power. "Now that…you're here…my job's done," Ian's smile faded, and Jason took a moment to fit two and two together.

He dropped Ian's hand, instead grabbing his neck like he was going to choke him. Ellie reached out to stop him, afraid he would hurt Ian, but Ian waved her off, his eyes focused on Jason's dead-serious glare. "You're not gonna fucking do that to Riley, you're not giving up just because you've found me. I bet she's sitting somewhere, worried sick about you, and you just wanna die on her?" Jason forced Ian to look at him, making his grip tight enough only to let him know he wasn't kidding around.

Ian blinked at him, as if coming to his senses for a moment. "Sorry…can't think straight," a laboured breath escaped his lips. He reached into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling a chain out with difficulty.

Ian dangled it in tauntingly in front of Jason, the two gold rings on it glinting in the artificial light from above their heads. Ellie noticed they were both splotched with dried blood.

"Plus, if I died…wouldn't be able to…give Riley one of these," Ian drawled, coughing a few times from the strain talking was putting on his body. Ian smirked, smugly amused by the way Jason's jaw hit the floor.

It took him a moment to compose himself, but even when he did, Jason sputtered dumbly, "You-you've gotta be joking…"

"You think I woulda…gone to the trouble of getting these…if I was joking?" Ian lifted an eyebrow.

Jason let out something between an angry hiss and a snarl, getting up so fast that he would have hit Ellie's legs with his chair if she hadn't pulled them up in time. "Fuck you, Cobra," Jason spat viciously at Ian, shoving the infirmary door open with unnecessary force upon exit. Ellie stared after him with a mixture of mild surprise and disbelief.

"So…_not _friends?" Ellie snorted after a minute, and Ian smirked feebly, wincing as he put the chain back in his pocket.

"Not exactly…Ponyboy's just mad I'm making a move before he is," Ian rolled his eyes, glancing at the operating room doors as they swung open. Dr. Anderson, Maria, and a mouse-haired nurse emerged with grave looks on their faces.

They halted in front of Ian's cot. Dr. Anderson gave him a nod of greeting, clearing his throat. "We're going to have to perform surgery on you again, Dominic. We have reason to believe you might be developing a disease called botulism, and we need to remove any contaminated tissue to keep it from getting worse," he explained formally, and Dominic nodded.

"Sounds good, Doc. Promise I won't flatline this time," Dominic feebly smirked, but the three adults didn't share his crude sense of humor.

* * *

><p>It was twilight by the time Ellie reached the barn, having been sent away by Maria before Dominic was taken in for surgery again. The barn lights attracted her like the moths and mosquitos clamoring around the towering floodlights positioned around Jackson.<p>

A sense of anxiety pervaded Ellie's mind as she slipped into the barn. Jason was unpredictable and unstable when he was stressed or angry, and after his outburst in the infirmary, Ellie was pretty sure that he was both. It didn't help that he had tried to kiss her, either.

But the barn was oddly quiet; Jason wasn't hacking away at his barrel dummy in the middle of the aisle like he usually was at night. Instead the soft swishing of horse tails and gentle snorts greeted her. Somewhat relieved, Ellie was about to turn around and head back to Tommy's when a faint orange glow caught her eye beyond the barn's partially open back door.

Curious, Ellie tiptoed over and poked her head out to investigate. The paddocks were always dark since no floodlights had been erected around the barn. She made out Jason's silhouette on the corral's high fence against the sun's fading red light, and the orange glow igniting around his lips again before quickly fizzling out. A puff of white-gray smoke dissipated into the air.

Taking a deep breath to steel herself against Jason's expected wrath, Ellie conspicuously stepped toward the corral fence, making her presence known behind him. The day's heat was only beginning to surrender to the night's chill, but the humidity stubbornly refused to give in. Ellie tucked a damp strand of hair behind her ear as she clambered up onto the fence.

Jason was half-turned away from her, but the gentle night breeze still wafted the acrid, foul-smelling cigarette smoke into her face. Ellie wrinkled her nose, wiping at her watering eyes. "You smoke?" she blurted out the obvious, more to express her dislike of the smoke in her face than anything.

Jason shrugged, tapping the ash from his cigarette. It disappeared into the dark, hard-packed dirt of the corral. "Sometimes. You want one?" he offered her a fresh cigarette from his back pocket, his voice surprisingly bereft of the anger Ellie had expected.

"I don't smoke," Ellie replied.

The silence that settled between them wasn't uncomfortable, but rather peaceful. The crickets were beginning their concert in the tall grass lining the paddock fences, filling the quiet for them.

"Are you still mad at Dominic?" Ellie queried, watching Jason's shoulders tense at the name.

After taking a final drag on his cigarette, Jason snuffed it out on the fence's rough wooden surface, flicking it into the dark abyss below them. "I feel kinda stupid, actually. How could I think Riley wouldn't move on after she was convinced I was dead? I guess that was just me being selfish…"

"So Dominic got Riley to fall in love with him after they left?" Ellie cocked her head.

"No, Riley had fallen for him long before they escaped from Denver. Eventually she chose me over him, but you can guess what happened after I was out of the picture," Jason spat bitterly.

Ellie fell quiet for a moment, thinking back to the golden rings Dominic had so proudly presented in front of Jason. "Do you think he's really going to do it? Marry Riley, I mean?"

Jason took a deep breath, his spidery finger tightly gripping the denim at his knees. "Knowing him, yeah. God, it makes me want to throw up."

"Why? Do you want to be the one popping the question?" Ellie chuckled as Jason hunched his shoulders, trying to hide the blush she could see creeping up his face in the half-light of twilight.

Jason gently kicked at the corral fence, with the same motion he would be using to scuff the barn floor. "I dunno…if I was older, I would think about it," he mumbled shyly.

Another short silence settled between them, and Ellie sensed a bit more awkwardness, like she was stepping into territory she shouldn't. "So what about you?" Jason broke the quiet, his tone genuinely curious, "I told you who I lost, now it's your turn to spill."

Ellie chewed her lip, fidgeting as the painful memories crept into her mind. "Her name was Riley too…she was my best friend," she began, taking pauses to collect herself. "We used to hang out at this abandoned mall back in Boston, and then Riley joined the Fireflies," Ellie quietly explained, focusing intently on the place where she knew her bite mark was.

"Was that how she died?" Jason ventured, but Ellie shook her head.

"No…" Ellie trailed off, and Jason waited patiently for her to continue, "We were goofing off in the mall, and Infected came after us…she got bit."

Jason's lips formed a grim line, and he let a soft sigh escape his nose. He nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks…" Ellie said half-heartedly, eyeing the faint scars around Jason's left shoulder and collarbone to distract herself. "How did you get those?"

Jason lifted an eyebrow, glancing at said scars. He chuckled lightly at the memory, but Ellie could still hear the pain it brought him. "These? I fell through a plate glass window escaping a warehouse fire with Riley. Broke my ankle, too," he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Oh…did a lot of crazy stuff like that happen in Denver?" Ellie asked.

"Sure," Jason smirked, "besides tiffs between the Fireflies and the military, I've been in jail, survived an air raid outside the Zone, almost been killed by Ian a bunch of times, and almost committed suicide. How's that for a track record?"

An unpermitted snort of laughter escaped Ellie's lips, and Jason's smirk widened just a fraction. "I don't think I can beat that…" Ellie fought a smile, but it eventually won and quirked the edges of her mouth upwards.

"C'mon, I gotta close up the barn," Jason nudged Ellie with his elbow.

The awkwardness gone between them, he hopped off the corral's fence with her, slinging a friendly arm around her shoulders as they took their time strolling back to the barn, exchanging near-death experiences as they tried to top each other's tales.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ooh, love triangle drama! Because this isn't modern television, I'm only going to go a teensy bit reality-show on you guys, just because it's so darn fun :) Don't be surprised if there are some Downton Abbey themes thrown in later on, either...Yes, I have tons of drama up my sleeves for later. Thanks for reading and reviewing, and as always, stay tuned!**


	8. Vengeance

"Open the gate!" Dale ordered, and the rusted hinges whined and groaned as two men pulled the heavy doors to his settlement open. He waited impatiently on the inside, growling something about the men on the ramparts not opening the doors fast enough.

Riley anxiously clutched her father's sleeve, holding her breath as the doors swung out.

Jerry shuffled in, leading the horses Jasmine and Charlie behind him, their flanks glimmering with sweat in the noonday sun. Dried foam coated their muzzles and necks.

Jerry's face was like a piece done by Picasso, the left side of his face distorted by his swollen black eye, the skin around it painted by purple and yellow bruises. His nose was bent at an unnatural angle. His hair wasn't any less greasy than the horses' coats. His tattered gray hoodie clung to his lanky frame, stained with sweat and filthy like he had taken a bath in a mud puddle.

A terrible, heavy silence settled between Jerry, Riley, and Dale as Jerry slowed to a stop in front of the black-haired man. Dale's expression was grave as he noticed the second empty saddle, but also expectant.

Jerry scratched a few flakes of dried blood off his left temple, careful not to irritate the swollen purple tissue around his eye. Sweat pasted his dull brown hair to his neck, courtesy of the unrelenting sun's heat. He took a deep breath, but it was more of a sigh as he answered Dale's unspoken question, "We found the sentries guarding the cattle, but…we got in a fight with them, and Ian…"

He glanced at Riley, her eyes wide with anxiety as her bottom lip quivered, just barely able to hold in the inevitable grief.

Jerry shoved one grimy hand into the front pocket of his jeans, studying the dandelion Charlie was sniffing at. "He got shot. Died instantly, no pain. I'm sorry," he said, his lips forming a grim line as he passed, leading the horses up the street.

Riley pressed a hand to her mouth, poorly stifling a sob. "No…No. He can't be. He can't…he promised…No!" there was no holding back the grief now, it flooded her body as she wept into her father's shirt. Her fingernails sinking into his arm were the only thing keeping her shaking body from collapsing onto the cracked pavement.

Dale barely registered the death grip she had on his arm as he awkwardly patted Riley's back. "Another for the tally. Jackson's gotta pay," he growled.

Riley instantly pushed herself away from her father, her face a mix of shock, grief, and anger. "How can you say that? This is your fault!" she screamed at him, the tears running freely down her cheeks. "I told you not to send him on that stupid scouting trip!"

Dale fixed a stern look on his daughter, "Riley, he knew the risks, he was ready-"

"Ready for what? To give his life up just so you could get revenge on Jackson?" Riley's voice trembled dangerously, close to breaking.

"Those were his friends those bastards killed. He wanted revenge just as much as anyone else here," Dale said.

Riley hastily wiped at her damp cheeks, but the tears were instantly replaced, "Yeah, but he was ready to move on! You weren't, he was just following orders! I knew he didn't want to go on those trips, but you never listened!"

"Riley, people we care about die all the time, that's the world we live in. You just gotta move on," Dale crossed his arms, his sympathy waning.

Riley let out something between a sob and a furious snarl. "I bet you're more than happy he's gone! I know you hated him!" she continued hurling accusations at her father.

"Riley, that's not true," Dale's voice was tinged with impatience, "he was a good man. He did a lot for us."

Riley held a hand out, as if to stop him from approaching her, even though he wasn't moving. "No. If you liked him, you would have at least let us promise ourselves to each other, let him die happy."

Dale pinched the bridge of his nose, his frustration growing, "Don't bring this up again…"

"I wanted to marry him, maybe not for another few years, but I wanted to! You took that away for me!" Riley's renewed anger made her screech.

"_I_ didn't kill him!" Dale bellowed.

His face had gone an angry shade of red, his expression contorted with barely contained fury as his patience for Riley's grief disappeared. "The people of Jackson did!" he roared, fists shaking at his sides. "If you want someone to be angry with, be angry with them!"

Riley stepped back, stunned. The echoes of their voices in the street faded to a tense silence. It was like the houses were holding their breath, not daring to creak or settle as the tension hung thick in the air.

Collecting herself, Riley balled her fists, shouldering past her father. She halted after a few paces, turning her head to look at him. "You're right…" she sniffled.

"What are you going to do about it?" Dale queried, his fury gradually simmering down to a strained calm.

Riley rubbed at her cheeks again, and this time they stayed dry. "I don't know."

"You want justice, don't you? The people who killed Dom, and all the others…they need to pay, don't they?" Dale lifted an eyebrow.

Riley nodded once. "So we find the guys who killed them," she suggested.

Dale chuckled darkly, sending a chill down Riley's spine. "Why not just kill them all? If we do it right, Jackson will be nothing but corpses and ashes."

Riley winced at the mental image. People burning alive, skewered with arrows. Charred bodies heaped into great pyres, their grey ashes floating freely on the wind like autumn leaves. For a moment, she thought she felt the ground shake, heralding the oncoming charge of Cobras on their horses, the blades of their swords glimmering crimson with blood in the moonlight, red all the way to the hilt.

It would be just like Denver.

Gritting her teeth, Riley tightened her fists. _Maybe I couldn't do anything about Jason, but the people who killed Dom…them I can do something about. They don't deserve mercy. _She could feel the acidity of revenge burning away her grief, shutting everything else out. It left her veins cold and gradually encased her heart in ice, as if she were slowly stepping away from a hot flame.

"They need to die. _All _of them," Riley finally agreed, her voice devoid of emotion. She resumed her march up the overgrown driveway to her house.

Dale's lips twitched upward just a fraction. "Couldn't have said it better myself," he said, following suit.

* * *

><p>"You feel that?" Dr. Anderson lifted an eyebrow at Ian, gently poking the skin of his left palm with a dull pin. Four days had passed since Ian had arrived at the infirmary, but improvement was slow.<p>

"No," Ian shook his head, his eyes on the ceiling.

Dr. Anderson moved up to the crook of Ian's elbow, poking the skin there. "What about that?"

Ian nodded, "Yeah. A little."

"On a scale of one to ten, ten being full feeling?" the doctor asked.

Ian shrugged his good shoulder. "About a four."

Dr. Anderson leaned back in his chair, scribbling down notes on his clipboard. "You're showing a bit of improvement, the numbness in your arms is going away. Slowly, but it's going away," he gave Ian a small smile, but the young man only managed an upward twitch of one corner of his mouth in reply.

"How long until I can get out of bed?" Ian asked, his words a little slurred together.

Dr. Anderson's smile faded, replaced by his accustomed neutral expression common to those in his line of work. "Well, you've still got those holes in your gut, that one in your shoulder, and on top of that you're still a long ways away from recovering from the botulism. I'd say give it a few weeks. The antitoxin might have stopped the botulism from spreading, but it has still done some damage," he explained.

Ian gave a weak groan, wiping the sweat collecting on his forehead away with his limp right hand. Dr. Anderson propped him up with pillows, pulling the sling over Ian's head. The rusty fans whirring in the corners of the infirmary provided little relief from the heavy humidity and oppressive summer heat.

They both glanced up as an unfamiliar woman entered through the infirmary doors, a small brunette girl of four or five hoisted on her hip. The woman's tangled, greasy, mouse-brown hair clung to the back of her neck despite being tied up in a short ponytail. Ian guessed she couldn't be older than him, but the dark shadows under her eyes and the stress lining her otherwise youthful face almost made him think twice.

Dr. Anderson stood, his face slipping into an expression that was welcoming, but had an almost forced kindness to it as he approached the woman, her eyes darted around the infirmary as if scanning for any potential threats.

"Ah, Liz, good to see you again. Please, take a seat and I'll be with you in a minute," he addressed the mouse-haired woman. Ian detected a hint of strain in his voice, as if the new patient wasn't someone he enjoyed dealing with. Liz curtly nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed opposite Ian's.

Liz placed the little girl on the bed beside her, so they both had their feet dangling off the edge. She massaged her pale arms like she was relieving the burden the weight of the child had placed on her body. To Ian, her collarbones popped out too much, as did her shoulder blades underneath her faded pink tank top. Liz caught him looking at her, and shot him a glare too vicious to use on strangers.

Before Ian could smirk in reply, Dr. Anderson diverted Liz's attention as he sat down in front of her with a new clipboard. Liz hoisted the child off the bed, placing her on her feet so she could explore under her watchful eye. Dr. Anderson proceeded with asking Liz questions, while the little brunette girl curiously wandered around the infirmary.

The child didn't look too different from Liz in terms of cleanliness. Her cheeks were a bit hollow, with dirt smeared on them. Her shoulder-length, thin brunette hair looked like it hadn't been brushed that morning. The holes in her purple t-shirt weren't sewn up, and the hem of her blue floral skirt was frayed beyond repair.

She strolled over to Ian's bed, her gray eyes transfixed on the IV bag hanging from a thin metal pole beside him. The sunlight hitting the clear fluid in the bag created wavy dapples inside it, which reflected dots of light onto the floor. Ian followed her gaze, smiling a little.

"Pretty, eh?" he commented.

The little girl didn't reply. She didn't even turn her head.

Trying to get her attention, Ian reached a hand out to tap the girl's shoulder. He would have, if Liz hadn't roughly yanked the girl away. The child let out an ear-splitting screech, even making the nurse at the other end of the infirmary wince. Liz glared harshly at Ian, like the child's cry of protest was his fault.

"What did I say about approaching strangers, May?" Liz hissed at the girl, who was still trying to wriggle free of the woman's tight grip.

Liz yanked on May's tiny wrist again, giving her a stern warning look. It looked more like she was threatening her with her eyes to Ian. May didn't scream again, and stopped trying to struggle free. She stared at the floor, wiping the tears collecting at the corners of her eyes with her free hand.

"Jeez, give your sister a break, she's not doing anything wrong," Ian scoffed, throwing Liz a disapproving look.

Liz let out a sarcastic bark of laughter, narrowing eyes identical to May's at Ian. "Yeah, like I haven't heard _that_ one before," she snapped in a Louisiana drawl, "She's not my sister, she's my _daughter_. And I don't want you coming near either of us, got that?"

Ian couldn't help but lift an eyebrow in surprise. "You don't have to worry about that, I'll be bedridden for the next few weeks. Then I'm outta Jackson as soon as possible," he shot back.

"Sure fucking hope so, we don't need another inked up son of a bitch like you around here. I lived in Denver for a short while, don't think I don't know a fucking Cobra when I see one," Liz spat, hoisting May up onto her hip again.

"Glad the reputation extends as far as Jackson, Wyoming," Ian growled, watching May's eyes become fixed on the IV bag again. It was like she was in her own little world, completely oblivious of the spat between her mother and Ian.

As Liz left the infirmary, Ian wondered why May's mother didn't mind using such vulgar language around her child. Then he thought back to May's obliviousness.

It was like she couldn't hear them.

Dr. Anderson ambled over to Ian's bedside, lowering himself into the chair as his knees emitted faint cracking sounds. He rubbed a tired hand down in face, taking any sweat away with it.

He gave a dry chuckle, "Handful, isn't she?"

"That's putting it lightly," Ian smirked. It faded quickly as his expression darkened. "May's deaf, isn't she?"

Dr. Anderson nodded grimly. "Yes…Elizabeth doesn't know Sign, either. I'm no speech expert, but I don't think May was ever taught to communicate properly."

"That's so sad...How long have they been here?" Ian queried.

"Couple of weeks, maybe. They're still adjusting to life in a community, but they're coming along alright. Maria's been helping them a lot," the doctor replied.

Ian pursed his thin lips, falling into a thoughtful quiet for a few moments. "Has anyone tried to teach them Sign?"

Dr. Anderson shrugged. "Maria's tried, she knows the language. But…Liz doesn't seem to care. She's too busy popping pills and locking herself in her bedroom," he said, giving a sad sigh. "Poor little May has nobody to give her any attention. Her mother almost completely ignores her, save her scolding her."

"She's addicted to pills? What kind?" Ian tilted his head, interested.

"Anti-depressants, stimulants, anything she can get her hands on. Luckily for us, she's smart enough to leave the painkillers alone. She's stolen pills from this infirmary twice already, and Maria's trying to find her stash, but no luck. That woman is smarter than she looks," Dr. Anderson chuckled without any mirth.

"Or just really paranoid," Ian added.

Dr. Anderson opened his mouth to say something else, but he was interrupted by the infirmary doors clapping against the walls, signaling the entrance of someone. Maria and Tommy strode in, and the doctor took that as his cue to leave. He gave up his chair to Maria, busying himself with another patient.

Tommy pulled up a second chair, nodding curtly in greeting to Ian. "Sorry I hadn't come by sooner, Maria wanted to make sure you were in the clear. Name's Tommy," he said.

Ian narrowed his eyes at Tommy, a spark of familiarity lighting up his eyes. The feeling didn't bring any positive memories. "I know who you are. You worked with my father, back in Denver. Marlene around here somewhere, too?" Ian asked, trying to keep the venom out of his tone.

All the while, memories from last fall were thrown into sharp focus again. Ian remembered his friends bleeding out on the ranch house's decaying floor, and catching glimpses of Tommy's face from the second floor, along with another man's. That face had haunted his mind ever since, bringing with it the drive for revenge.

This was the man.

The man who killed his friends.

Tommy lifted an eyebrow, his expression one of mild surprise. "Sorry, have we met?" he queried.

"Not properly. You remember a man by the name of Major Kelly Rowland, don't you? I'm his son…_was_ his son," Ian corrected himself.

"I'm sorry," Tommy's mouth formed a grim line. "It's good to meet you, Dominic. That aside, we'd like to ask you a few questions."

Ian nodded, letting Tommy continue.

"Why were you and…whoever did this to you," Tommy gestured to Ian's injuries, "so close to our cattle?"

Ian chuckled weakly, knowing where Tommy was going with the question. "You don't gotta worry, I'm no cattle rustler. I'm not stupid enough to try, not that I could even make off with one without getting a bullet through my skull," he said.

"So what were you doing, then?" Tommy didn't even crack a smirk at Ian's sarcasm, and neither did Maria.

"I was on a hunting trip," Ian lied, "and we just happened to come across your herd. Then my partner turned on me and pinned me to a log with my own sword." He easily looked Tommy in the eye, adopting a casual drawl.

Maria took over the interrogation. "Why'd he try to kill you?"

Ian let out a dry bark of laughter, which turned into a few coughs. The pain flared up in his abdomen again, and he took a few moments to let it subside. "Look, this fucker framed my brother and got him executed by a firing squad, alright? He's a two-faced rat and it was only a matter of time before he decided to do me in, too," he explained.

Maria and Tommy exchanged looks, and imperceptibly nodded at each other. "This…partner of yours, any chance he might blame your 'death' on Jackson?" Maria asked, using air quotes.

Ian scoffed, "Oh, there's every chance. He probably already has." At Maria and Tommy's worried expressions he reassured, "But you don't have to worry, from what I can tell my group doesn't stand a chance against you guys. They'll be mad, but I don't think they'll bother."

"You sure?" Tommy asked suspiciously.

"You think a little band of survivors could stand a chance at defeating a fortified settlement like this? Get real," Ian rolled his eyes.

Tommy regarded Ian with a hard stare, as if trying to detect any indication that he might be lying. But eventually he bobbed his head in agreement, rising from his chair. "Alright. You're free to leave anytime you want. If you need anything, just let us know," he said, as Maria stood as well.

As they turned to leave, Ian called, "One more thing."

The pair halted, listening.

"That woman, Liz…Dr. Anderson told me she stole pills from this infirmary. Why haven't you done anything about it?" Ian queried.

"We have. We might not sanction our people the way you're used to, and frankly it _ain't_ _none of your business_," Tommy replied curtly, his tone harsh as he growled the last part of his sentence. Maria covertly hissed at him to stop being rude as she tugged on the sleeve of his plaid shirt, and Ian smirked as Tommy's icy expression faltered just a little.

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, new characters have appeared! They will certainly shake things up for Ian in the future, but for now I'm content to let you ponder upon who they are and who they might become to Ian. Remember when I said there will be some Downton Abbey references in this story? Well...next chapter might be sensitive for some people, so I'm just warning you now. Thanks for taking the time to read and (hopefully) review, be sure to tune in for the next chapter!<strong>


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